• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, Yesterday

The left-wing advocacy group Media Matters is suing to halt an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission, arguing that the agency undertook the probe to retaliate against the group over its critical report about brand safety on X, formerly Twitter.

"Media Matters faces an ongoing campaign of retribution for exercising its First Amendment rights," the group says in a lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.

"The Federal Trade Commission seeks to punish Media Matters for its journalism and speech in exposing matters of substantial public concern -- including how X.com has enabled and profited from extremist content that proliferated after Elon Musk took over the platform formerly known as Twitter," the group adds.

Media Matters says the FTC's investigation is part of the continuing fallout from the group's November 2023 report that ads for brands including Apple, Bravo, IBM and Oracle were being placed next to pro-Nazi posts on X.

After Media Matters published its study, it was sued by X and served with subpoenas by two state attorneys general -- Ken Paxton of Texas and Andrew Bailey of Missouri.

Media Matters is fighting X's lawsuit, and also sued to halt the attorneys general investigations.

A federal judge in Washington blocked Paxton's investigation, ruling that Media Matters was likely to show that Paxton was retaliating against the group for newsgathering activity that's protected by the First Amendment. That ruling was upheld by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals last month.

Bailey abandoned his probe before a judge issued a ruling.

Media Matters alleges in its new complaint against the FTC that in May, several months after Republican Andrew Ferguson took over as chair, the agency sent a demand for a trove of information -- including material connected to X's lawsuit, and documents regarding Media Matters' finances, newsgathering and affiliations with other organizations.

That subpoena, which Media Matters attached to its complaint, includes a demand for "all documents" relating to the Interactive Advertising Bureau, World Federation of Advertisers and its now defunct Global Alliance for Responsible Media, Check My Ads, the Center for Countering Digital Hate, Double Verify and NewsGuard, among other groups.

The watchdog writes that the subpoena is a "fishing expedition into the most sensitive areas of Media Matters’ journalism and advocacy.

"The injuries Media Matters has faced are of a piece with those caused by the cascade of other lawsuits and investigations prompted by Musk and his allies since November 2023," the organization states in its complaint.

"Each time Media Matters has achieved a legal victory, it has hoped to enjoy a reprieve from retaliation and a return to its ordinary activities," Media Matters continued. No such reprieve has arrived, and the harms that the organization has suffered have instead compounded with each renewed attack against it -- particularly now that it is the subject of a federal investigation by an Administration known for targeting and punishing its perceived enemies."

The group added that former FTC commissioner Alvaro Bedoya publicly criticized the probe.

"Bizarrely, new FTC leaders have started an investigation into Media Matters, apparently because it may have driven down ad revenues for the President's $288 million donor, Elon Musk," Bedoya stated earlier this month, when he announced his resignation from the agency.