OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Twitter CEO Elon Musk tore into Florida Democrat Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz the former chair of the Democratic National Committee, after she took aim at journalist Matt Taibbi who assisted Musk in releasing the “Twitter Files.”
“The Society of Professional Journalists’ code of ethics asserts that journalists should avoid political activities that could compromise integrity or credibility. Being a Republican witness today certainly casts a cloud over your objectivity,” she said during a House hearing.
“But a deeper concern I have relates to the ethics of how journalists receive and present certain information. Journalists should avoid accepting spoon-fed or cherry-picked information if it is likely to be slanted, incomplete, or designed to reach forgone easily disputed, or invalid conclusions.,” she said.
After allowing him to respond for a brief time she “reclaimed” her time and tore into him more.
“Before you became Elon Musk’s hand-picked journalist, and pardon the oxymoron, you stated this on Joe Rogan’s podcast about being spoon-fed information: ‘Once you start getting handed things, you’ve lost. They have you at that point, you have to get out of that habit. You just can’t cross that line.” She said. “You crossed that line with ‘The Twitter Files.’
“It’s my time… Elon Musk spoon-fed you his cherry-picked information, which you must have suspected promotes a slanted viewpoint. Or at the very least, generates another right wing conspiracy theory. You violated your own standard, and you appear to have benefited from it,” she said.
Her position that journalists should get stories from sources who cherry pick information is laughable considering how many in the mainstream media were spoonfed, and promoted, the Russian collusion hoax.
Musk responded to her speech with a sarcastic tweet in which he linked to a story about the representative having to resign as the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee on the eve of its convention after leaked emails show an alleged plot by the Party to damage Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in favor of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Democrat primary.
“I think we should listen carefully to DWS, given that she is such an expert in ethics violations,” he said. “She was forced to resign as DNC chair after being bust rigging the nomination against Bernie!”
I think we should listen carefully to DWS, given that she is such an expert in ethics violations 😂
She was forced to resign as DNC chair after being bust rigging the nomination against Bernie! @DWStweets https://t.co/CFkEMjSMJG
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 10, 2023
Musk is still doing his best to shake the powers that be to their core. On Thursday, the CEO took to Twitter to respond to a list of conspiracies shared by musician Zuby that, he claimed, had all been found to be true.
The fact is that no, not all of these conspiracy theories were debunked, but Musk agreed with the musician.
“What are the biggest media lies of the last few years?” Zuby said before listing “-Covid-19 (all of it) -Jan 6 ‘insurrection’ -‘safe and effective’ jab -Jussie Smollett -Bubba Wallace -Covington hoax -Kyle Rittenhouse story -‘Very fine people’ hoax -‘drinking bleach’ -‘horse dewormer’ -Russian collusion -Ghost of Kyiv -Hunter Biden laptop -‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill -Twitter collapse post-Elon -Nord Stream pipeline -‘Transitory’ inflation -Men can get pregnant -BLM narrative -‘2 weeks to flatten the curve’ -Blaming Russia for missile that landed in Poland.”
“This list is not exhaustive… Kinda crazy to see it laid out like this. And people have the nerve to call ME a ‘conspiracy theorist’. I didn’t promote any of these. Mainstream media has the misinformation game on lock. I can’t compete,” he said.
Again not all of these conspiracy theories have been debunked, but many have and Musk noticed.
“We are running out of ‘conspiracies’ that turned out to be true! Can someone manufacture a few more? The shelf is almost empty,” he said.
We are running out of “conspiracies” that turned out to be true!
Can someone manufacture a few more? The shelf is almost empty.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 9, 2023
But it is not the first time this week Musk made powerful enemies.
Musk tore into Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell after the senator took a stand against Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
“With regard to the presentation on Fox News last night, I want to associate myself entirely with the opinion of the chief of the Capitol Police about what happened on January 6th,” Sen. McConnell said to reporters on Tuesday.
He was referencing a statement issued by the Capitol Police that shredded Carlson and the footage he showed.
The chief of the U.S. Capitol Police issued a memo to his staff on Tuesday following the airing of previously unseen security footage by Fox News host Tucker Carlson which showed police officers appearing to stand passively as a large crowd entered the Capitol on January 6.
Police Chief Tom Manger condemned the comments made during the airing of the footage on Carlson’s Monday night program, stating that it was “filled with offensive and misleading conclusions” about the riot of January 6, 2021, when a group of people breached the U.S. Capitol building, causing disruptions to lawmakers who were in the process of certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
“The program conveniently cherry-picked from the calmer moments of our 41,000 hours of video,” Manger claimed. “The commentary fails to provide context about the chaos and violence that happened before or during these less tense moments.”