Exclusive | Left-wing cofounder of group targeting conservative media ‘stepping down’ after funding, legal challenges: ‘Marketer at heart’

WASHINGTON — The left-wing cofounder of a group that received gushing coverage for its efforts to “defund” conservative media will step away from the advocacy organization at the end of next month, The Post can reveal, following a legal challenge and attempts to rebrand in the wake of President Trump’s return to the White House.

Nandini Jammi — whose Check My Ads Institute seeks to yank advertiser funding from right-wing figures and outlets purportedly spreading “disinformation” — announced on her LinkedIn “with enormous pride” that she was “stepping down.”

The move comes on the heels of a funding shortfall amid impending legal battles, with a Florida federal judge recently denying Check My Ads’ request to have a defamation lawsuit brought by Rumble thrown out — and the brother of Attorney General Pam Bondi threatening a further defamation case against the group.

“Dear friends, followers and haterz,” Jammi wrote. “When we launched Check My Ads Institute in late 2021, we envisioned a grassroots advocacy organization that would hold the digital advertising industry accountable for running your ads in places you don’t want them, without your knowledge.”

Jammi went on to boast that her group had now “become the industry’s indisputable watchdog” by bringing “much-needed public attention to this shady trillion dollar ecosystem.”

“That being said, it’s time for me to hit the road. I’m a marketer at heart,” she added, noting that she will depart her role at the nonprofit on May 31. “For now, I will be opening up a consulting shop to work with a variety of clients, ranging from tech to non-profits and movement-building.”

Jammi received glowing profiles from The Washington Post, New York magazine, and other outlets for her push to deplatform and demonetize conservative voices online — claiming that “‘neutrality’ is no longer an option” for major US brands seeking to place ads in right-of-center media.

Along with cofounder Claire Atkin, Check My Ads has targeted both major networks like Fox News and upstart conservative outlets like the Daily Wire, Daily Caller and Post Millennial — as well as right-wing pundits such as Glenn Beck.

“We got Yahoo to kill their Glenn Beck ads,” Jammi bragged to backers in a private February 2022 video call, according to New York magazine. “I’m sorry — I’m using very violent language — to block Glenn Beck from their inventory.”

After Trump’s 2024 electoral victory, however, Check My Ads quietly shifted its focus away from right-wing content and toward allowing internet users “to make independent, informed choices” about the content they view, and digital ad firms’ access to Americans’ data, the Washington Examiner reported last month.

The site had previously touted having “defunded Breitbart by over 90%,” “lost Tucker Carlson (almost) all his cable ads,” and “created consequences for Fox News spreading election disinformation,” according to an archived webpage.

Check My Ads also laid off its editorial team in December, according to a former employee‘s post on Substack, after having taken in more than $2 million in donations and grants — including from the Ford Foundation and the left-wing Democracy Fund — while paying Jammi and Atkin six-figure salaries, per its latest tax filings.

Post Millennial scribe Andy Ngo, who has extensively covered violent acts by Antifa black bloc rioters in his hometown of Portland, Ore., accused Jammi of having pressured advertisers to kick him to the curb for allegedly inciting “violence” and promoting “content by neo-Nazis” in his reporting.

“They’re trying to cancel me in any way possible in the digital world and the real-life world with real-life manifestations of violence,” Ngo told The Post in a November 2021 phone interview.

“To make me appear as far right or a fascist makes liberals or people on the center-left disregard my reporting,” added Ngo, who is gay and refers to himself as a “small ‘l’ liberal.”

Rumble sued Check My Ads for defamation after Jammi claimed the alternative video-sharing platform was being propped up by big tech ad firms’ placements — despite Google Ads providing “less than 1% of its revenue,” according to a November 2023 complaint filed in Florida federal court.

“Nandini Jammi and Claire Atkin, the co-founders of Check My Ads, together with Media Matters for America, purport to be digital advertising crusaders dedicated to fighting the ‘global disinformation epidemic,” the complaint stated.

“Yet, for years, they have engaged in their own hypocritical disinformation campaign to censor, silence, and cancel speech by spreading false, materially misleading, and defamatory statements and engaging in tortious conduct to convince advertisers to withdraw ad spends from platforms like Rumble that host content creators who espouse views contrary to Defendants’ hyper-partisan sensibilities.

“In the 2010s, their targets were Bill O’Reilly, Breitbart News, and Tucker Carlson. Today, their targets are Elon Musk, X, and Rumble,” it added, accusing Jammi and Atkin of lying to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) about Rumble’s ad revenue sources.

In a filing earlier this month, Check My Ads noted that it had “expended their limited resources” complying with evidentiary requests from Rumble’s attorneys.

Atkin, who will be taking over for Jammi, already signaled on her BlueSky account that Musk is next in line for their demonetization efforts.

“Every media watchdog group in the world has been saying ‘he’s doing Nazi things’ for years,” she said of the Tesla and SpaceX founder. “The advertisers knew and left X. So many people have been raising the alarm for so long. And yet we are still here.”

The Post reached out to Jammi and reps at Check My Ads Institute for comment. Attorneys for Rumble did not respond to a request for comment.