Elon Musk’s lawsuit seeking damages from a left-wing media watchdog may proceed to trial, a U.S. federal district judge said on Thursday. The judge is an investor in Musk’s electric car company, Tesla, but has not recused himself from the case. Musk sued Media Matters for America in November after the latter published a report that claimed Twitter (now X) showed ads for major brands, including Disney, next to antisemitic and neo-Nazi content. Many companies then pulled their ad spending, prompting a now-infamous outburst from Musk in which the entrepreneur collectively told advertisers to “go fuck yourself.” He also took to social media to threaten “thermonuclear” consequences for anyone that “colluded in this fraudulent attack on our company.” The ruling dismisses a motion filed by the defendant arguing Musk as the plaintiff failed to present proper cause and engaged in blatant venue shopping by enlisting a jurisdiction in which neither X nor Media Matters are based. In the ruling, Judge Reed O’Connor agreed with Musk’s argument that Texas was sufficiently entitled to decide the dispute, since Media Matters had targeted among other companies those headquartered in the Northern District of Texas, including AT&T. (…) Musk also chose O’Connor’s Northern District when suing the Global Alliance for Responsible Media earlier this month, claiming members of the advertising standards body unlawfully conspired against buying ads on his platform. At the time many experts argued the case was dubious at best, and potentially designed to entangling defendants in legal fees so costly they serve as a deterrent.
via fortune: Texas judge who owns Tesla stock rules Elon Musk can take media watchdog to trial over Nazi claims