On Tuesday, the Federal Trade Commission walked away from its investigation of Media Matters for America. For the first time in nearly three years, my organization is not under investigation by a hostile federal authority or state attorney general. That alone is news. But how we got to this place — and the looming threats to us and freedom of speech writ large — is the bigger story.
The Trump administration has built a playbook for punishing critics and controlling the media and others: layering regulatory threats, retaliatory investigations, and lawsuits on top of targets until they buckle. Most cave; many submit in anticipation of the attack, just to avoid the gauntlet.
Too many media companies have enabled this onslaught.
In less than 17 months, Trump has ramped up his assault on the press. Consider a few such examples: this administration has replaced the Pentagon press corps with sycophants and propagandists, sidelined Associated Press reporters who refused to use Trump’s preferred term for the Gulf of Mexico, and stripped $1.1 billion from public broadcasting. Trump has called on the FCC to revoke licenses of broadcast networks over unfavorable coverage, and the agency’s chair has used regulatory pressure to marginalize critics. The president even inserted himself in a merger fight that ended with his political allies in control of CNN.
Too many media companies have enabled this onslaught. ABC and CBS both settled lawsuits that Trump had filed before his reelection that legal experts stated had no merit. To secure approval for its merger with Skydance, Paramount also agreed to install a so-called “bias monitor” at CBS News. And two major advertising companies, facing FTC review of their proposed merger, acquiesced to aconsent decree prohibiting political boycotts.
Media Matters has been operating inside this new reality even before Trump’s second term. In 2023, Elon Musk filed his self-described “thermonuclear” lawsuit against us for our report documenting that brand advertisements were appearing alongside pro-Nazi content on X.
Goaded on by Stephen Miller, now Trump’s deputy chief of staff, the attorneys general of both Missouri and Texas began parallel investigations into Media Matters in sync with Musk’s lawsuit. We defeated them both. (Missouri’s former attorney general Andrew Bailey is now co-deputy director of the FBI.)
When Trump returned to office, the federal government joined in. Even before he was nominated, FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson foreshadowed his intent to use the agency to go after those he believed were involved in advertiser boycotts on social media. That’s why when the FTC issued a civil investigative demand in May 2025, we didn’t wait. We went on offense, suing to block the retaliatory investigation, just as we had pushed back against the state authorities.
Our lawsuit was not just about protecting ourselves.
The FTC ran the same play against much larger companies. They capitulated. We didn’t. We knew that in this environment, the process is the punishment; the pain is the point. In a 2025 speech, Ferguson even alluded to the real goal of his investigative powers: “Those tools are expensive when applied to you even if we don’t win at the end of the day, so knuckle under.”
Our lawsuit was not just about protecting ourselves. Hidden behind the FTC’s claims of advertiser boycotts and antitrust violations was a far more sinister idea: that no one can go to court to stop a government investigation, no matter how questionable its intent. Had the FTC prevailed, it would have further consolidated power in the hands of an increasingly lawless administration.
But this week, after nearly a year of litigation, the FTC relented and agreed to a practically unprecedented settlement in our favor. The commission withdrew its investigation and committed not to pursue Media Matters in a similar manner in the future. And this settlement came after we had beaten the agency in court several times, securing injunctive relief and reinforcing case law that will make it harder for the FTC to use the same moves against others. Some of our cases have established critical legal precedents, which already have been cited in 28 legal battles regarding the Trump administration’s overreach.
These decisions have and will protect other organizations, like newsrooms and civil society groups, from clearly unlawful retaliatory investigations
The Trump administration does not have the law on its side, which is a part of the reason it’s so cowardly and consequential when entities fold in the face of their attacks. This kind of capitulation by the government is rare, and it matters, but the fight is not over. The whole point of this approach is the one-two punch: state power on side, civil litigation on the other. We have, for now, beaten back one of those vectors. The other is Elon Musk’s existential lawsuit, where this all began. That litigation has cost us more time and money than all three government investigations combined.
Whether the pressure comes from a federal agency or the richest man on earth, the goal is identical: Deter scrutiny, punish dissent, and make journalism too expensive to do. Different tools, same goal. But we all must continue to fight.
Angelo Carusone
Angelo Carusone is the president of Media Matters for America.