When ThinkProgress crashed and burned back in 2019, it was a beautiful thing. Led by a slew of Clinton and Democratic Party insiders, the website that pretended to be independent was shoveling progressive drivel at the American public daily. It’s still there but hasn’t been updated since. A husk of its once prominent self, hoping perhaps for a new stooge to carry its dirty water.
It’s been six years since that crapstorm of a supposed news site went dark, and not soon enough, Media Matters is on the verge of joining it. The operation famous for using its deep-pocketed liberal donors to go after conservative pundits and projects with smear campaigns has found itself in lawsuit purgatory.
But, things have changed for the worse for the Angelo Carusone-led Media Matters in recent years, with their decision to target X owner Elon Musk leading to Musk unleashing lawsuit hell, which also led to red state lawsuits against MMFA. And in May, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) launched an investigation into MMFA to determine “whether its reporting on X amounted to illegal collusion with advertisers.”
That last one strikes me as a cheap shot and a bit suspect, but I’ve not read the claims or seen the evidence, so maybe it’s legit. But going after Musk? That was just stupid. He can waste a few billion on lawyers until you’ve been ground into poverty and not miss a step. You’d be right to wonder whose bright fikkin’ idea that was. It also puts you in Streisand Effect territory, where the attention you thought you wanted turns into every sort of thing you don’t.
The organization, which is funded by some of the Democratic Party’s biggest donors, has racked up about $15 million in legal fees over the past 20 months to defend itself against lawsuits by Elon Musk, in addition to investigations by Mr. Trump’s Federal Trade Commission and Republican state attorneys general.
The group has slashed the size of its staff and scrambled to raise more cash from skittish donors, according to documents and interviews with 11 people familiar with the organization’s fight to survive.
I realize that Democrat mega donors have stopped writing as many checks to the party because it is a train wreck in a shit storm, but donations to NPR have skyrocketed, and good on them. Is there hope for Media Matters? It seems unlikely.
Soros (among others) may have funded Media Matters for years, but he’s an opportunist with an eye for trends. Media Matters has a lot of baggage tying it to the current collapse of support for Democrats and their current messaging disaster. A recent Wall Street Journal poll shows Dem unfavorability at a staggering 63%. Soros might get more value from a few podcasts at a significant discount.
Media Matters is tagged by even presumed supporters as an operational mess. They are fighting with each other and the law firm defending them from the lawsuit broadsides on a rocky downhill date with that bitch, karma. All the trouble they caused the right has landed on their doorstep.
Musk, State AGs, and the FTC appear to be pushing them toward bankruptcy, insolvency, and ultimately, history.
The Left is a mess, and Media Matters is on its way to insolvency.
No more USAID. The Feds are chasing ActBlue into a box canyon of criminal negligence and enduring regret. It’s an all-out assault on the waste stream that keeps liberals and their media alive. And Paramount even canceled that pretentious prick, Colbert (he was only losing 40-50 million a year).
Dark times are upon them, and no one outside the blistering blue bubble is shedding a tear. Mike Benz was right. What goes around comes around, and with your help in 2026 and 2028, it can keep coming around all the way to the 2030s.
