World’s richest “free speech absolutist” Elon Musk is trying to suppress the free speech of Media Matters for America because it reported on a series of facts on Musk’s social media platform X (formerly Twitter). Those facts have proven financially inconvenient for the billionaire. On X, Musk said he would file a “thermonuclear lawsuit” against Media Matters for reporting on antisemitic user content being placed alongside corporate ads.
After former Trump adviser and renowned dirtbag Stephen Miller and Musk publicly exchanged ideas on X about suing the company, the attorney general of Missouri, Republican Andrew Bailey, simped his way into the conversation, replying, “My team is looking into this matter.” On Monday, Newsmax had Bailey on to explain what he was talking about. He gave this ineloquent restatement of consumer protections, followed by a word salad attempt at throwing suspicion at Media Matters.
The Missouri attorney general’s office is tasked in statute with protecting Missouri consumers. That means consumers that participate on social media platforms as well. And so if we’ve got an instance where there was a deceptive or fraudulent business practice where Media Matters was using some kind of coercive or fraudulent algorithms or advertising, that’s going to be problematic under the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act.
He followed this up with the fantastical assertion that “Missouri has been a champion of free speech since I took office.” Bailey’s idea of “free speech” seems to include threatening pharmacies if they distribute medication that does not align with conservative Christian politics, as well as cracking down on drag shows and helping Gov. Mike Parson lay out a legal attack against a reporter he didn’t like.
We talk about North Carolina non-stop on “The Downballot,” so it’s only natural that our guest on this week’s episode is Anderson Clayton, the new chair of the state Democratic Party. Clayton made headlines when she became the youngest state party chair anywhere in the country at the age of 25, and the story of how she got there is an inspiring one. But what she’s doing—and plans to do—is even more compelling. Her focus is on rebuilding the party infrastructure from the county level up, with the aim of reconnecting with rural Black voters who’ve too often been sidelined and making young voters feel like they have a political home. Plus: her long-term plan to win back the state Supreme Court.
