Elon Musk SLAPPs Media Matters For Daring To Speak The Truth

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Elon Musk claims to be a “free speech absolutist.” What meaning is unclear. Apparently, the Nice and Highly effective Musk thinks it’s completely OK to threaten somebody with grievous bodily hurt or submit lies about them on-line so that they lose their job as a result of, hey, individuals ought to be free to say something they need, proper? What does freedom of speech imply for those who can’t say what’s in your thoughts, irrespective of how a lot it hurts another person?

Musk’s idea of free speech is clearly at odds with the legislation, however he doesn’t care. He gives a discussion board for everybody to say what’s on the their thoughts — except it offends Musk’s tender sensibilities. Then he will get his knickers in a knot and sics a squadron of legal professionals on them to punish them for daring to train their proper to free speech. Such two-faced hypocrisy is OK within the magical thriller tour of Musk’s life as a result of he’s wealthy sufficient to make his personal guidelines and drive everybody else to adjust to them.

Musk And The SLAPP Go well with

A SLAPP Go well with is one by which a litigant makes use of the authorized course of to achieve an unfair benefit. In line with the ACLU of OhioSLAPP is an acronym for a Strategic Lawsuit Towards Public Participation. The time period was coined within the 1980’s by two College of Denver professors, George Pring and Penelope Canan, who co-authored SLAPPS: Getting Sued for Talking Out. In its most elementary type, a SLAPP swimsuit is a civil grievance or counterclaim filed in opposition to individuals or organizations who converse out on problems with public curiosity or concern.

SLAPP fits are sometimes introduced by companies, authorities our bodies, or elected officers in opposition to those that oppose them on problems with public concern. Within the case of a enterprise curiosity, the filers could also be looking for to guard an financial curiosity. They’re additionally filed in opposition to people and organizations who try to make their voice heard on a problem by expressing their First Modification rights to freedom of speech and freedom to petition the federal government. A big, well-funded group could also be SLAPPed, however extra typically, people with fewer assets are the victims of SLAPP fits.

A SLAPP swimsuit is usually disguised as an odd civil declare comparable to defamation, invasion of privateness, or interference with contract and/or financial benefit. Defamation is likely one of the commonest authorized claims used for SLAPP fits and is mostly outlined as a false assertion of truth, both written (libel) or spoken (slander), which damages the plaintiff’s status. One of many key traits of a SLAPP swimsuit is that it isn’t essentially designed to realize a positive verdict. As a substitute, it’s designed to intimidate the goal as a way to discourage them and others from talking out on a problem of public significance.

Along with engendering concern and intimidation, the occasion initiating the swimsuit typically seeks to bleed the opposite occasion of assets and produce a chilling impact, not solely on the defendant’s expression of First Modification rights but in addition on those that take into account talking out on the problem sooner or later. In essence, SLAPPs are designed to discourage public dialogue by utilizing our authorized system to choke the train of free speech.

Common Dreams says one of the crucial infamous SLAPP fits was introduced by Hulk Hogan in opposition to Gawker for defamation in 2007, a swimsuit that pressured Gawker out of business. Right here’s the backstory: Later it was found that the swimsuit was bankrolled by right-wing billionaire (and former Musk enterprise companion) Peter Thiel, who had a grudge in opposition to Gawker as a result of it revealed articles that harm his emotions.

Final November, Elon Musk announced on X a “thermonuclear lawsuit against Media Matters and ALL those who colluded in this fraudulent attack on our company.” He added, “Their board, their donors, their network of dark money, all of them…” could be included within the swimsuit’s scope. What heinous act did Media Issues decide to evoke such outrage? Why, it had the audacity to level out that advertisements by outstanding firms appeared alongside “pro-Nazi content” that was seen to customers.

Media Matters for America is a 501(c)3 registered nonprofit, which describes itself as a “progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media.” It was based in 2004 on the top of the George W. Bush administration. Ever since then, it has focused the right-wing media echo chamber, together with Fox Information and different outstanding cable, newspaper, and radio broadcasters, who coordinate the messaging of pro-corporate and reactionary forces throughout the Republican Get together and past. Musk is having none of that woke nonsense.

Musk SLAPP Go well with Leads To Staffing Cuts

On Might 30, Media Issues introduced extreme staffing cuts. Its president, Angelo Carusone, mentioned: “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. Nobody does what Media Matters does.” Because of the monetary pressures created by Musk’s SLAPP swimsuit, Carusone defined the group was “taking this action now to ensure that we are sustainable, sturdy and successful for whatever lies ahead.” Greater than a dozen staffers, together with researchers and digital producers, have been amongst these terminated.

Ben Collins, CEO of the satirical web site The Onioninformed Frequent Goals“This is why right wing billionaires sue people reporting on them. They know they can’t win these lawsuits but they also know legal fees will cripple the little guy reporting on their lies and crimes. This is how free speech is actually chilled — vengeful dipshit billionaires.”

“This is the latest example of billionaires and pandering politicians abusing the legal system to retaliate against their critics and harm the public’s right to know,” mentioned Seth Stern, director of advocacy for the Freedom of the Press Basis, in regards to the layoffs at Media Issues. “The result is that the American public loses access to information in a critical election year.”

In March of this 12 months, a federal decide in California threw out an analogous lawsuit introduced by X and Elon Musk in opposition to the Center for Countering Digital Hatea nonprofit group that had publicly accused the platform of profiting off hateful content material revealed on the platform. In dismissing the case, US District Court docket Choose Charles Breyer cited the clear motivation behind the swimsuit as a part of the rationale it lacked legitimacy. It was “evident,” mentioned Breyer in his ruling, that “X Corp. has brought this case in order to punish CCDH for CCDH publications that criticized X Corp — and perhaps in order to dissuade others who might wish to engage in such criticism.”

Tim Karr, senior director on the media advocacy group Free Press, wrote in an op-ed for Frequent Goals final 12 months that Musk’s “attempts to silence his critics are not surprising to anyone who has followed Musk’s erratic behavior” over latest years. “The magnate positions himself as a champion of free and open debate, while taking extraordinary efforts to silence any honest criticism and independent research that might negatively impact Musk and his many businesses.” Karr concluded that the “only thing absolute about Elon is his refusal to give a fair hearing to any of his critics. And that’s absolutely not free-speech absolutism.”

The Takeaway

Musk is many issues — serial entrepreneur being simply considered one of them. He, maybe greater than anybody, has made the transition to electrical vehicles potential. But time and time once more he has used his wealth to silence criticism of himself or his firms. His declare to being a free speech absolutist has been destroyed by his insistence on defending essentially the most excessive voices whereas working to silence those that disagree with him. That makes him principally a thug quite than a knight in shining armor. The phrase that appears to finest match the proficient Mister Musk is “hypocrite.” If he’s your hero, it’s possible you’ll wish to have your ethical compass recalibrated quickly.

For a primer on free speech in the present day, please see beneath: