As we previously reported, so-called “reporters” are apoplectic with rage after a number of establishment media “journalists” were suspended from the Twitter machine Thursday on grounds that they were allegedly trying to do an end-run around Twitter’s policy surrounding the sharing of personal information about a user (Musk, in this case), including their location.
After Musk’s family was targeted Tuesday by an unhinged fanatic who reportedly got tracking information online about the Musk vehicle he was following, Musk has been on the warpath against efforts to track his location and that of anyone else who doesn’t want their information shared without their express permission.
On Thursday night, a Twitter Spaces chat was created where thousands of journalists could join and share their frustrations over Musk banning the likes of former Vox.com writer Aaron Rupar – one of the worst offenders of sharing misinformation on Twitter, including one time when a deceptive video clip he shared nearly got a sheriff’s deputy in Georgia fired.
At one point during the chat, Musk dropped in and proceeded to explain that going forward, journalists would be suspended or banned like any other Twitter account when it came to doxxing and the sharing of personal information, whether it was shared directly in tweets or in links to “reports” they wrote that included it.
“You’re not special because you’re a journalist,” Musk told them in no uncertain terms:
BREAKING: @ElonMusk just hopped on Spaces with a group of journalists and informed them the same doxxing rules apply to them and they aren’t special pic.twitter.com/SaYFWxZVpJ
— Pillow Time Poso🎅🏻🎄 (@JackPosobiec) December 16, 2022
Hilarity ensued in the aftermath, including via the below tweet, where it was claimed that Musk was “called out” for “lying” by one of the suspended journos. He wasn’t:
Holy Shit. Elon Musk just popped into a Twitter Spaces chat with a bunch of journalists. He was called out by journalist Drew Harrell, who he banned, for lying about posting links to his private information, then leaves almost immediately after being pressed. Here is the exchange pic.twitter.com/wVA9Gb5MVJ
— Bradley Eversley (@ForeverEversley) December 16, 2022
The below response from Harwell was typical of the reactions the suspended journalists and their advocates had, accusing Musk of being dishonest and a hypocrite on the issue of free speech on the social media platform:
"Elon says he is a free speech champion and he is banning journalists for exercising free speech. I think that calls into question his commitment,” WaPo's @drewharwell, who was banned tonight, told CNN. https://t.co/R1a24KcpWp
— Jon Passantino (@passantino) December 16, 2022
While there are absolutists on the right on Twitter who say Musk has done wrong here by supposedly treating liberals the way conservatives were on Twitter for years, I’m not among them.
If the Twitter policy needs to be tweaked so that someone who is simply reporting on what happens on Twitter doesn’t get suspended, I have no issue with that. But if those same reporters were sharing personal information regarding locations that in effect put anyone from Musk to some random Twitter user in danger, why shouldn’t they be subjected to the same rules everyone else is?
As Musk indicated, journalists shouldn’t be given special privileges on social media because they are journalists. Further, to see these people so outraged on “free speech” grounds about the account suspensions is rather rich considering most of the news outlets whining about the suspensions – including CNN – saw absolutely nothing wrong with the FBI and DHS communicating with Twitter on the suppression of any accounts that were passing along alleged “hacked” materials on Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden (materials which weren’t, in fact, “hacked”).
Further, these same outlets have largely looked the other way for three years as private citizens, including well-respected physicians who raised questions about the government’s official COVID policies and responses, have had their Twitter accounts suspended and/or banned on grounds that they were spreading “misinformation” that went contra to the CDC’s and Dr. Fauci’s officially official guidelines.
And when those media outlets weren’t looking away, they were actively pushing for more aggressive action from the likes of Facebook and Twitter against users who didn’t toe the official government line.
So no, I have no sympathy whatsoever for the suspended journos. They are reaping what they’ve sown, and now they know what it feels like. I will not lose one second of sleep over this issue tonight, and neither should anyone else who has watched Big Tech systematically work in concert with the media, so-called “fact checkers,” and government to silence dissenting voices over the course of the last several years.
Story cited here.
