Elon Musk filed yesterday to compel Media Matters to stop withholding evidence during the discovery process of his defamation lawsuit against them.
This comes as layoffs at the leftist smear organization increase due to the lawsuit.
Here’s more from X Daily News:
NEWS: X Corp. filed a motion to compel against Media Matters for America and two of its employees in a defamation lawsuit, arguing the defendants are improperly withholding key documents.
Details:
– X Corp. contends Media Matters and its staffers have refused to produce… pic.twitter.com/iYuGtm6rFk
— X Daily News (@xDaily) May 24, 2024
X Corp. filed a motion to compel against Media Matters for America and two of its employees in a defamation lawsuit, arguing the defendants are improperly withholding key documents.
Details:
– X Corp. contends Media Matters and its staffers have refused to produce documents based on “meritless” objections about relevance, vagueness, burden and privilege.
– It argues the requested documents are highly relevant to proving the defendants’ intent and motivations behind allegedly defamatory articles about hate speech on X’s platform.
– The motion also accuses the defendants of improperly asserting reporter’s and associational privileges in an overly broad manner to shield documents.
What’s next: X Corp. wants the court to overrule the objections and force Media Matters to promptly hand over the documents before discovery ends. If privileges apply, it’s requesting a detailed privilege log.
The scope of discovery has become a major point of contention as X Corp. seeks to prove Media Matters crossed the line from watchdog to defamer, while Media Matters fights to protect its sources and internal communications.
It was reported yesterday that the lawsuit is causing Media Matters to layoff much of its employees, including management and journalists:
Media Matters, a nonprofit organization that smears conservatives, announced Thursday it laid off dozens of employees, including management and journalists, and appeared to cite its legal battle with Elon Musk as cause for the dismissals.
Musk’s X social media platform sued Media Matters in November over its efforts to link ad placements on the platform to neo-Nazi content, Breitbart News reported, a strategy the radical organization used to initiate boycotts against the income streams of conservative media companies.
Media Matters President Angelo Carusone announced the layoffs by suggesting the organization’s future is on shaky ground.
“We’re confronting a legal assault on multiple fronts, and, given how rapidly the media landscape is shifting, we need to be extremely intentional about how we allocate resources in order to stay effective,” Carusone said. “Nobody does what Media Matters does. So, we’re taking this action now to ensure that we are sustainable, sturdy, and successful for whatever lies ahead.”
Recently laid-off former employees blamed Musk for trying to drain Media Matters’ resources. “Bad News: I’ve been laid off from @mmfa, along with a dozen colleagues,” posted Kat Abu, who said her job was to “watch Fox News so you don’t have to.”
“There’s a reason far-right billionaires attack Media Matters with armies of lawyers: They know how effective our work is, and it terrifies them (him),” she said.“Journalism milestone achieved (got laid off),” wrote Bobby Lewis. His X bio said he wrote about “bad tv.”
I hope Musk’s lawsuit destroys Media Matters. I don’t doubt another would rise in their place, but lessons would be learned if Musk wins this lawsuit.