Feeling a whole lot of economic FREEDOM! right now (boldface mine):

A lawyer at advertising conglomerate Interpublic Group fielded a phone call in December from a lawyer at X. The message was clear, according to several people with knowledge of the conversation: Get your clients to spend more on Elon Musk’s social-media platform, or else.

X CEO Linda Yaccarino has made comments that seemed like similar warnings in conversations with Interpublic executives, according to people with knowledge of those talks.

Interpublic leaders interpreted the communications from X as reminders that the recently announced $13 billion deal to merge Interpublic with rival Omnicom Group could be torpedoed, or at least slowed down, by the Trump administration, given Musk’s powerful role in the federal government, some of the people said. They also had a front-row seat to Musk’s continued criticism of advertisers that ditched X since he bought it in 2022, when it was known as Twitter.

I have no idea if the merger should go through on its own merits (guessing not), but that’s just outright extortion. But there’s more!

​X filed a federal antitrust lawsuit in August, accusing the World Federation of Advertisers, an ad trade group, and several big brands such as candy maker Mars and CVS Health, of coordinating an illegal boycott of X following Musk’s $44 billion takeover of the platform in late 2022…

X upped the ante in early January by alerting the court that it planned to add more names to the lawsuit, which left advertisers fretting for weeks over whether they would be next. On Feb. 1, X added about a half-dozen more advertisers to the litigation.

“Some of the advertisers we work with have expressed that they feel there is an implied threat from X that they could be added to the lawsuit if they don’t return to X,” said Ruben Schreurs, chief executive officer of Ebiquity, a consulting firm that works with advertisers.

That legal threat has hung over the industry, including in sideline conversations during CES in January, a major event that attracts top advertisers, agencies, and media and tech companies.

This is beyond bog-standard corruption. Democrats should call for either impeachment against Musk* or criminal charges against Musk and Yaccarino (I’ve given up on Republicans, but they should do this too). I didn’t think the descent into Putin-style corruption would be this fast, but, as the kids say, here we are.

*Given that the Trump administration is now pretending Musk isn’t a real official, who knows if this would applicable. But do something, for Gritty’s sake.