(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Media Matters, the leftist media watchdog non-profit, fired a dozen employees on Thursday due to the bombshell lawsuit filed by tech mogul Elon Musk.
“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,” Media Matters President Angelo Carusone claimed in a statement.
“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,” he lamented, according to the New York Post.
Musk sued Media Matters for defamation after the organization claimed Twitter’s algorithms placed advertisements from major companies near posts by neo-Nazis and other hate groups.
However, Musk contended that Media Matters manipulated data to support their conclusion about the advertisements.
Several of the fired employees took to Twitter to express their dissatisfaction.
“Bad News: I’ve been laid off from @mmfa, along with a dozen colleagues. 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),” Katherine Abughazaleh, a former senior video producer, wrote on Twitter.
Another employee, Beatrice Mount, tweeted, “After nearly four years of working at media matters, I got laid off. So if anyone is looking for researchers with video experience, drop a line.”
Mount, a media analyst, had recently authored articles attacking Fox News for reporting on immigration statistics.
She also labeled attorney Christina Bobb as an “election denier” and claimed that “right-wing media” is spreading a “baseless conspiracy that Democrats are trying to import migrants to vote in upcoming elections.”
