The NYT — ever a bundle of [fill in the blank] — has been avoiding the "Twitter Files" but is delving into The Mind of Musk in "Critics Say Musk Has Revealed Himself as a Conservative. It’s Not So Simple. Elon Musk has tweeted about political topics regularly since taking over Twitter, often belittling some liberal causes. But what he stands for remains largely unclear" by Jeremy W. Peters.
In a 24-hour period late this week, he tweeted more than 40 times, often with little rhyme or reason....
It’s true Mr. Musk certainly sounds a lot like a Republican — and, sometimes, a lot like Mr. Trump — with his missives on Twitter against “woke” politics and Covid restrictions, his attacks on “elite” media and his efforts to draw attention to allegations that Hunter Biden profited from his father’s political clout....
But where Mr. Musk has seemed most in line with the G.O.P. of Mr. Trump is in the tenor of his political commentary, which if anything seems more spiritedly anti-left than ideologically pro-right....
This doesn't feel mysterious to me at all. It sounds almost exactly the way I feel. So my hypothesis is that he's liberal, he's spent a lot of time around liberals and lefties, and he's got endless problems with the way they've betrayed what, it seems, should be their true values.
Many of his recent tweets have had that kind of “own the libs” tone, the shorthand on the right for when conservatives think they’ve deftly, often sarcastically, swatted down a liberal. A couple of weeks ago, he posted video on Twitter of a closet full of T-shirts with the slogan “#stay woke” that he said he had found at the social media company’s headquarters....
Mr. Musk has always claimed his concerns with Twitter’s previous management were about the ability of a small group of the company’s employees whom he described as “far left” to censor content.
Ah! Way down near the end of this piece, there is Twitter Files material — so the Times seems to want to cover it but not make it too visible (which reminds me of the way old Twitter "deamplified" material it disfavored):
[O]ver the past week, he has cheered on tweets about internal communications before he took over. The communications, which were given to two writers who have posted their findings on Twitter, calling them the Twitter Files, showed how the company went about deciding what information got suppressed.
The main thing isn't the files but The Mind of Musk as it observes the publication of the files.
As for the files:
It’s been a mixed bag of revelations. Some showed how Twitter employees made it harder to see tweets from a Stanford University professor who warned about how Covid lockdowns could harm children — a view many public health experts have come around to accept well after the fact.
That's massively important! And yet the NYT doesn't even tell us the name of the Stanford professor. It's Jay Bhattacharya. His story ought to be isolated, elaborated, and made front-page news!
Other documents show how more conventional, conspiracy-theory-embracing conservatives were shut down, like Dan Bongino, the radio host who was one of the biggest amplifiers of lies about the 2020 election.
And that's it for coverage of the Twitter Files. It's back to The Mind of Musk:
Mr. Musk has not professed to have any profound attachment to Republican policies, though, which is consistent with his posture before taking over Twitter.... In an interview with The New York Times in 2020, he described his politics as “middle-of-the-road.” “I’m socially very liberal. And then economically right of center, maybe, or center. I don’t know. I’m obviously not a communist.”...
He sounds like any intelligent American who isn't drawn to party politics. We may even be the majority! If only the New York Times could stop catering to the Democratic Party and write for us.
Often, it seems, his posts are motivated by personal pique, not political philosophy....
Great! An actual human being. Some people love them.
Posts
38 comments:
Shorter Times: “Musk is an evil a**hole who presumes to think for himself.”
The NYT is not noticing humor as part of Musk's way of working. The closest they come is calling it sarcasm, which is is not. Sarcasm is a woman's trope.
"The NYT is not noticing humor as part of Musk's way of working."
This would require a proper sense of humor, as recognized by most of us through most of our lives. There is no room for that in the world of the Times these days. Discerning young professionals have absorbed the fact that a sense of humor will get you fired and cancelled from polite society.
Can't have that. Maybe, someday, they could loosen up and just make offenders wear a scarlet 'H' on their clothing. It would be an improvement.
Republicans pounce is followed by Democrats psychoanalyze.
If the story contains a bad enough person, the story ends there.
Elon Musk (...) has long made his politics tricky to pin down.
Don't be silly. Musk is making things harder for leftists, therefore he is a Nazi. Simple.
I would love to see the NYT files. You know there is some good stuff there.
Elon is far from Conservative, but even HE can see what liars the people on the left have become.
The ironic thing is that the Twitter files unveil what anyone with a modicum of ability to observe the obvious, could see that Twitter was, by design, shadowbanning, de-amplifying, or flat-out censoring those with ideas or opinions that did not follow the far left script. This is precisely what the editors at the New York Times do on a daily basis.
As you stated yourself, Ann, "...my hypothesis is that he's liberal, he's spent a lot of time around liberals and lefties, and he's got endless problems with the way they've betrayed what, it seems, should be their true values." Exactly. To wit: This is how you get people who spent lifetimes as Liberals: Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss, Elon Musk, Glenn Greenwald- among the most read people on Substack and Twitter precisely because they have said out loud what the majority of people see every day. But our media, led by the staff of the New York Times (who made life miserable for Bari Weiss) cannot see through their own thought bubbles.
Anyway- what freaking difference should it make what 'side' Musks opinions are on? Would he get applause and awards if he were far lefty? You betcha. Does he now get ignored, or slammed because he's not far lefty? Uh-huh. It's not that he's a Conservative or even- God forbid- a Republican. It's that he's not clearly far-lefty and he's got a megaphone.
Who gave that megaphone to a non-far lefty person? How do we get it back? Can we de-amplify his work?
rhhardin said...
The NYT is not noticing humor as part of Musk's way of working.
The NYT never noticed Trump's humor... The NYT never noticed ANYONE'S humor
How Many Lesbians, Does it Take; To Screw in a light bulb? THAT'S NOT FUNNY!!!
the narrative has gone out. The Twitter files is a nothingburger. Belittle or ignore.
The vast majority of people will not hear about the real collusion
"The communications, which were given to two writers who have posted their findings on Twitter . . ."
One of whom was Bari Weiss, who edited the NY Times opinion section 2017-2020. She was forced out of her position at the Times because she approved the Tom Cotton op-ed where Cotton called for the use of troops to restore peace during the George Floyd riots.
Jeremy Peters appeared on Bari Weiss's podcast just last year to discuss issues around the 2020 election.
Weiss's name might as well be Voldemort at the NY Times.
It would seem more clarifying if those on the more extreme "woke" left were consistently called something other than liberal. It doesn't seem fair to classic liberals to have their political self identification muddled and muddied by those who, ironically, advocate against free speech and all this victim class stuff.
Musk is an engineer. A very good, and unique engineer. They process the world using their aptitude, skill, training and experience. Other outside influences, will color their opinions, but not alter them to conflict with logic and reason.
The left drug Musk into their politics because of the damage their policies (lies) waged against science and math.
Exactly. To wit: This is how you get people who spent lifetimes as Liberals: Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss, Elon Musk, Glenn Greenwald- among the most read people on Substack and Twitter
Add people like Bill Mahr, Neil Oliver, Scott Adams, Joe Rogan...and a host of other Democrats, that have called BS on what the left considers viable policies.
The left never knows when to take a win, The States were marching one by one to accept homosexual marriage, then SCOTUS had to big foot the States power. But rather than take the win, the left decided the next step was to groom kindergartners for butt sex.
Other documents show how more conventional, conspiracy-theory-embracing conservatives were shut down, like Dan Bongino, the radio host who was one of the biggest amplifiers of lies about the 2020 election.
How does the NYT describe people who embraced the conspiracy theory that Donald Trump colluded with Russian Intelligence to win the 2016 election?
It's funny to me that with the "revelations" (more properly, the confirmation) of shadowbans and deamplification and so forth that are coming to light, the traditional news media are doing their darnedest, within the limits of their medium, to replicate the same.
It's also funny to me that even in this supposedly straight news piece, the NYT (has consulted its style guide and) refers to 2020 election "lies" - not even the much more journalismy "unfounded" or "unsupported allegations"! - and in the anecdote about Musk's posting a video about finding a closet full of #staywoke t-shirts, refers to that video as an "own the libs" attempt rather than as a tweet documenting something he found that, to him at least, indicated the presence of at least enough people of the progressive left at Twitter to warrant creation of those shirts. That is, Musk pounces!
So in this piece that purports to reveal the Mind of Musk (thank you for that phrase, Professor), we get at least as much information about the Mind of the Times.
The authoritarian left only accept you if you are one of them. otherwise - they - being the authoritarian left - will destroy you.
I'm waiting for the "Collusion Files" to hit the streets. I'll be reading them while the NYT's men are having their babies.
Glad to see you call out Jay Bhattacharya. He is one of my heroes.
Test of Faith... Do you really think the FBI files on MLK are still intact?
Lesley Podesta, neice of John podesta, Bill Clinton chief of staff was in charge of trust and safety at Twitter. She was responsible for getting rid of child porn.
Doesn't seem to have done a very good job of it.
You remember the podesta's, don't you? Proudly displaying child porn (or "art" as they called it) in their living room. And proud to have it in WaPo.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2004/09/23/married-with-art/dee9a0d0-0f0d-4505-b0ef-2f0e1bd1e0e0/
Lesley, with 2 of her cohorts left Twitter on Friday.
John Henry
"efforts to draw attention to allegations that Hunter Biden profited from his father’s political clout"
That's classic "straw man" argument. It's not the fact that Hunter profited from Joe's political clout; it's that Hunter acted as Joe's agent, to help Joe profit from his own political clout. Hunter was a go-between, an intermediary between the Payors (like Burisma, the ChiComs, etc.) and the ultimate Payee, which was Joe. It's all one big pot, according to Hunter. Hunter got his share, for sure, but Joe was the intended beneficiary.
"Pay no attention to that Joe, over there; it's all about Hunter." Right!
During my lifetime I have seen many changes. Commitments to accuracy in media, integrity in law enforcement, honesty in government, respect for country and Constitution, freedom of speech and religion, etc., used to define us as Americans. Now those commitments "brand" us as conservatives.
I can live with that.
Because all political positions can be adequately described by their placement along a one-dimensional left/right axis. Very sophisticated analysis, the NYT.
Bongino should sue the NYT for calling him an amplifier of lies.
Would make a great law school hypo, anyway.
Both public figures.
Trying to show/refute actual malice: you’re knowingly lying about me amplifying someone else’s knowing lies.
Duelling logical knots. You’d have students hanging themselves from the rafters out of frustration.
JSM
"That's massively important! And yet the NYT doesn't even tell us the name of the Stanford professor. It's Jay Bhattacharya. His story ought to be isolated, elaborated, and made front-page news!"
They don't even tell us the name! It ought to be isolated! They should be better!
On the other hand, the NYT has a different notion of what is "massively important"--in this case, even after discovering that, yes, indeed, children suffered horribly, that the validity of the early diagnosis by "conservatives" must be contained, so as to preserve prog dominance and the NYT readers' self-regard.
Any organization that contains a bureaucratic unit declaring itself responsible for “Trust and Safety” is by definition both dangerous and untrustworthy.
IMHO.
"If only the New York Times could stop catering to the Democratic Party and write for us."
If the universe is infinite, somewhere it does.
"... allegations that Hunter Biden profited from his father’s political clout.... ".
Please provide a single, even remotely plausible, basis for Hunter Biden's income from foreign actors.
where they use allegedly or "extreme" or a host of other terms is an easy tell.
I'll bet this guy giggles whenever he draws a good hand in poker.
"The NYT — ever a bundle of [fill in the blank]
Can dogshit be bundled? If it can, the NYTimes is living proof.
You know the NYTimes and others are looking high and low, turning over every rock they can to find one lefty who got banned at Twitter for a political tweet supporting a Democrat position. Eight days now, and they can't find even one.
You'd think that Twitter (Yoel Roth) banning Trump, his supporters, Conservatives, and anyone who didn't toe the party line AND was coordinating everything with the FBI, DNI, and DHS officials would be story. Also a "Story"? Yoel Roth taking orders from the Biden Campaign and the DNC.
But i guess that's just a nothingburger.
Instead we're going to personalize the story and make it all about Musk. Can we just label him an "Extreme rightwinger" or "Conspiracy Theorist" and dismiss him? Or do we need to do more work? that is the question.
It’s telling that they’re so focused on figuring out his political views, as opposed to just reporting on what he is doing with Twitter, not to mention reporting on the Twitter Files scandal. They’re desperate to put him in a box with a label on it, and frustrated that they can’t simply call him a far right white supremacist.
iowan2: "The left never knows when to take a win, The States were marching one by one to accept homosexual marriage, then SCOTUS had to big foot the States power. But rather than take the win, the left decided the next step was to groom kindergartners for butt sex."
I dont think you really understand what is happening here.
The marxist left didnt just "take the win on homosexual marriage" and then stop because homosexual marriage was never THE goal. It was just a waypoint on the path to their actual longterm goal. The complete destruction of the notion of marriage and destruction of the nuclear family and replacement by their preferred structures.
"You know the NYTimes and others are looking high and low, turning over every rock they can to find one lefty who got banned at Twitter for a political tweet supporting a Democrat position. Eight days now, and they can't find even one."
Haven't you heard? Lefties don't post bannable things.
Can dogshit be bundled?
Dunno. But it can be garnered.
The attitude of the NYT toward Musk depends, as always, on whose ox is gored.
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