What does Media Matters do? New York Times approaches conservative pundits like Tucker Carlson and Ben Shapiro for an election article
Conservative political commentators Ben Shapiro and Tucker Carlson recently shared on X, a message that both received from a reporter from The New York Times about Media Matters. Both the pundits were approached for their comment for an election article. A part of the message wrote:
"I wanted to give you an opportunity to comment for an upcoming article that takes a look at how political commentators have discussed the upcoming elections on YouTube. We rely on an analysis conducted by researchers at Media Matters for America."
Both Shapiro and Carlson specifically referred to Media Matters, a non-profit left-leaning watchdog journalism organization founded in 2004. Journalist and political activist, David Brock, was the founder of this organization.
According to the organization's official website, they are responsible for monitoring any kind of conservative misinformation being circulated across the internet and other forms of media. The website further stated:
"Media Matters works daily to notify activists, journalists, pundits, and the general public about instances of misinformation, providing them with the resources to rebut false claims."
Last year, the organization made it to the headlines, after Tesla CEO Elon Musk filed a defamation suit against them. According to Musk, the organization defamed X, formerly known as Twitter.
The lawsuit claimed that the organization had "manufactured side-by-side images depicting advertisers' posts on X Corp's social media platform beside Neo-Nazi and white-nationalist fringe content."
Alejandra Caraballo, a clinical instructor had called the lawsuit filed by Elon Musk against Media Matters to be "frivolous" in nature
The lawsuit that Elon Musk brought up against the organization was filed in the Northern District of Texas, where the judge is particularly right leaning. Alejandra Caraballo, a clinical instructor at Harvard Law School’s Cyberlaw Clinic, told TPM:
"This has been the playbook in Hungary, in India, Turkey, Poland — it’s a sign that we have an oligarchy, essentially. And it could be turbocharged under a Trump administration with the imprimatur of the state serving the whims of billionaires."
Somewhere else during the conversation with TPM, Carabello said that now anybody could be dragged to the Northern District of Texas if they criticize Musk and use the platform X. She further said:
"This is going to become a national playbook to silence any critics."
Seth Stern, director of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation also shared his point of view on the lawsuit the Tesla CEO had filed. According to Stern, the suit didn't seem to be that serious in nature.
Meanwhile, the judge, U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor, who has been presiding over this case had previously given an order to the organization to reveal the identities of each and every donor that they had. Earlier this month, however, the order by Judge O'Connor was blocked by a panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. According to the panel:
"We doubt that X Corp. needs the identity of Media Matters’s every donor, big or small, to advance its theories. Nor does it need the full residential addresses for any of those stated purposes."
As for the latest messages sent to the Conservative pundits from The New York Times, no further information has been made available.