The Media's Deranged Hysteria Over Elon Musk's Promised Restoration of Free Speech

[Valin]

System Update Substack

It was easy to predict that there would be an all-out war from Western power centers if Musk sought to mildly reduce censorship on Twitter. Still, the media outdid itself.
Glenn Greenwald

Nov. 27 2022

It is hard to overstate how manic, primal and unhinged is the reaction of corporate media employees to the mere prospect that new Twitter owner Elon Musk may restore a modicum of greater free speech to that platform. It was easy to predict — back when Musk was merely toying with the idea of buying Twitter and loosening some of its censorship restrictions — that there would be an all-out attack from Western power centers if he tried. Online censorship has become one of the most potent propaganda weapons they possess, and there is no way they will allow anyone to dilute it even mildly without attempting to destroy them. Even with that expectation in place of what was to come, the liberal sector of the corporate media (by far the most dominant media sector) really outdid itself when it came to group-think panic, rhetorical excess, and reckless and shrill accusations.

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But the self-evident absurdity of this laughable meltdown and the ease of mocking it should not obscure that there are lurking within these episodes some genuinely insidious and serious dangers. These preposterous media employees are just the sideshow. But what they are doing, unwittingly or otherwise, is laying the groundwork for far less frivolous and more serious people to use the attacks on Musk to further fortify the regime of censorship they have been constructing: the limitlessly demonizing language heaped on him, the success they have already had in driving away many if not most corporate advertisers from Twitter, the threats to once again abuse the monopoly power of Google and Apple to destroy Twitter or at least cripple it if Musk does not comply with their censorship orders (as they succeeded in doing last year to the free speech site Parler when it became the most-downloaded app in the country and refused to censor on demand).

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As we always have done and will continue to do with all video broadcasts and video reporting we do, we have created and are posting a full transcript of the monologue for subscribers only, available below, for those who prefer to read rather than watch (though we do believe that the video component of the show allows us to use another dimension in conveying our reporting, one of the main reasons we committed to produce this new live program on Rumble). But for those who prefer to read, the transcript of our Musk analysis is below; those wishing to watch our new SYSTEM UPDATE monologue can do so by clicking this link and then watch the video on Rumble.

[Geee]

Leftists Crow About Chasing 50 Major Advertisers Off Twitter

[Geee]

Apple Blackmailed Developer Into Blocking COVID Searches… and Maybe Elon Musk's Twitter, Too

Apple threatened at least one developer with banishment from the company’s lucrative App Store if they didn’t remove all search engine returns regarding COVID-19 from their library application.

[Geee]

Texas Rep. Pfluger sends letter to Musk: 'Report any censorship requests from the administration'

[Valin]

Nov 29, 2022

On Nov. 28, 2022, Andy Ngo was interviewed on Newsmax about Elon Musk's Twitter suspending a number of violent extremist Antifa accounts involved in radicalizing militants, and organizing violent direct actions. In order to be an independent journalist and cover security costs because of threats on my life, I need your help. Please support my work at https://www.andy-ngo.com/#donate or https://linktr.ee/AndyNgo. Thank you.

[Valin]

Elon Musk

@elonmusk

 

The Twitter Files on free speech suppression soon to be published on Twitter itself. The public deserves to know what really happened …

 

3:09 PM · Nov 28, 2022

[Geee]

Elon Musk says Twitter 'has interfered in elections'

Twitter owner and CEO Elon Musk on Wednesday acknowledged that prior to his takeover, the "obvious reality" was that Twitter "has interfered in elections" through its content moderation policies.

 

Musk's explosive assertion came in response to comments made by Yoel Roth, Twitter's former head of trust and safety, who indicated the social media platform was not safer under the Tesla CEO's leadership. Roth was speaking at a Knight Foundation conference on Tuesday when he explained why he resigned from Twitter, accusing Musk of running the company like a dictator. 

"One of my limits was if Twitter starts being ruled by dictatorial edict rather than by policy... there's no longer a need for me in my role, doing what I do," Roth said, per Reuters. :snip:

[Valin]

3 hours ago, Geee said:

Elon Musk says Twitter 'has interfered in elections'

*Yoel Roth, Twitter's former head of trust and safety, who indicated the social media platform was not safer under the Tesla CEO's leadership. **Roth was speaking at a Knight Foundation conference on Tuesday when he explained why he resigned from Twitter, accusing Musk of running the company like a dictator.

* 1. Well of course he would say this, 2. Safe For Who? ** 1. Resigned Before he got fired? 2. Dictator Translation: He would  do what I want.

[Valin]

Related

Nov 30, 2022
Hollywood celebrities are crumbling under Elon Musk's new Twitter purchase....Snip

From The Comments

Elon Musk did offer the World Food Programme $6 billion. Musk responded on Twitter, writing, “If WFP can describe on this Twitter thread exactly how $6B will solve world hunger, I will sell Tesla stock right now and do it.” “But it must be open source accounting, so the public sees precisely how the money is spent,” Musk added. -CNN Nov 18, 2021. David Beasley's net worth is up to $9 million with a $143,000 yearly salary. Homeboy needs to donate some chedda himself.

[Geee]

Don't Trust the News Business: It's Destroyed Itself

“Be it resolved: don’t trust mainstream media.” My name is Matt Taibbi, I’ve been a reporter for 30 years, and I argue for the resolution. You should not trust mainstream media.

I grew up in the press. My father was a reporter. My stepmother was a reporter. My godparents were reporters. Every adult I knew growing up seemed to be in media. I even used my father’s TV mic flag as a toy. I’d go in the backyard, stand with my back to the house, and play “live shot”:

Chet, I'm in Norwell, Massachusetts, where firefighters are battling a three-alarm blaze...

I love the news business. It’s in my bones. But I mourn for it. It’s destroyed itself.

My father had a saying: “The story’s the boss.” In the American context, if the facts tell you the Republicans were the primary villains in this or that disaster, you write that story. If the facts point more at Democrats, you go that way. If it turns out they’re both culpable, as was often the case for me across nearly ten years of investigating Wall Street and the causes of the 2008 crash for Rolling Stone, you write that. We’re not supposed to nudge facts one way or another. Our job is to call things as we see them and leave the rest up to you.

We don’t do that now. The story is no longer the boss. Instead, we sell narrative, as part of a new business model that’s increasingly indifferent to fact.

[Valin]

1 hour ago, Geee said:

Don't Trust the News Business: It's Destroyed Itself

“Be it resolved: don’t trust mainstream media.” My name is Matt Taibbi, I’ve been a reporter for 30 years, and I argue for the resolution. You should not trust mainstream media.

I grew up in the press. My father was a reporter. My stepmother was a reporter. My godparents were reporters. Every adult I knew growing up seemed to be in media. I even used my father’s TV mic flag as a toy. I’d go in the backyard, stand with my back to the house, and play “live shot”:

Chet, I'm in Norwell, Massachusetts, where firefighters are battling a three-alarm blaze...

I love the news business. It’s in my bones. But I mourn for it. It’s destroyed itself.

My father had a saying: “The story’s the boss.” In the American context, if the facts tell you the Republicans were the primary villains in this or that disaster, you write that story. If the facts point more at Democrats, you go that way. If it turns out they’re both culpable, as was often the case for me across nearly ten years of investigating Wall Street and the causes of the 2008 crash for Rolling Stone, you write that. We’re not supposed to nudge facts one way or another. Our job is to call things as we see them and leave the rest up to you.

We don’t do that now. The story is no longer the boss. Instead, we sell narrative, as part of a new business model that’s increasingly indifferent to fact.

 

There was a time when I thought being a  reporter was probably THE best job in the world. No more, at least not when it comes to  Corporate Media. 

[Valin]

Dec 2, 2022
Jack White of the rock duo 'The White Stripes', and Trent Reznor of 'Nine Inch Nails', are leaving Twitter, kicking and screaming, because Elon Musk invited Donald Trump to return to the platform — although Trump says he sees no reason to return.

 

[Valin]