Many Twitter users are fearful for the future of the popular social media site since it was purchased by Elon Musk. He is taking the company private and will be the sole proprietor. He has said he is an absolutist on free speech, which raises questions about whether he will tolerate hate speech, lies, propaganda, anti-vaxxers, disinformation, even Donald Trump, who was permanently banned from Twitter for inciting violence.
Now, the concern about Musk was stoked when he retweeted gossip from a free weekly (the Santa Monica Observer) that Paul Pelosi was drunk, high on drugs, and got into a fight with a man he picked up at a gay bar.
Musk posted that there was a “tiny possibility” that this was true. As readers began to react with incredulity that the new owner would spread unsubstantiated gossip, Musk deleted his tweet. Musk has 112 million followers on Twitter.
The San Francisco Chronicle wrote:
Musk responded Sunday at 5:15 a.m. Pacific time with a tweet that said, “There is a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye,” and posted a link to a baseless, anti-LGBTQ article in the Santa Monica Observer. By 10:30 a.m. Sunday, the message and link had been retweeted more than 30,000 times and liked more than 110,000 times, before being deleted less than an hour later.
Last year, the Los Angeles Times reported that the Santa Monica Observer was “notorious for publishing false news,” and once claimed “that Hillary Clinton had died and that a body double had been sent to debate Donald Trump.”
Axios posted that the Santa Monica Observer is not a trustworthy site.
Why it matters: Musk linked to an article from the Santa Monica Observer, a website known for years for publishing false stories.
- The site “is anything but trustworthy,” according to an executive at NewsGuard, a company that uses trained journalists to rate news and information sites.
- The site has a trust score of 44.5 out of 100 points on NewsGuard’s rating scale for trustworthiness, due to repeatedly publishing numerous conspiracy theories and false claims about politics, the pandemic and more.
- The site gets a red-rating and a warning for readers that says: “Proceed with caution: This website fails to adhere to several basic journalistic standards.”
Responsible people in the media fact-check. Musk didn’t think it was necessary. This does not bode well for the future of Twitter.
We have had our fill of conspiracy theories in the past six years.
It’s awful to think that the sole owner of Twitter will be a dupe for conspiracy theories and gossip and spread them to his millions of readers.
Just for laughs, read this article in The Intercept, which predicts that Elon Musk will regret his purchase of Twitter.
It begins:
ELON MUSK (and his consortium of much smaller investors) now owns Twitter. We need to take seriously the possibility that this will end up being one of the funniest things that’s ever happened.
That’s because as of this moment, it looks like Musk dug a big hole in the forest, carefully filled it with punji sticks and crocodiles, and then jumped in.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Can he “sink” any lower!
My sources say 📉
“Responsible people in the media fact-check.”
Very true, but there are few responsible journalists any more. The vast majority of political journalists push their preferred narratives first, and then wait for the facts to catch up. Other than – maybe – law enforcement, no one has the full story yet about the attack on Paul Pelosi. That hasn’t stopped many journalists and left-wing activists from blaming the assault on conservative figures in politics and the media. What is known is that the attacker has a long history of mental illness and has been all over the map regarding political views. The most likely explanation is that he’s a nut who should be confined some place where he can’t hurt other people.
What a concept: waiting for important information to be revealed before forming one’s opinion.
I agree with your last sentence. Why do you negate and make a mockery of its intent and meaning with the one before that?
There is significant and credible evidence that the attacker has long had mental health problems. What sources of information do you access that haven’t provided you with that evidence?
There is actual (real, witnessed, attested, confirmed, bona fide, etc.) evidence that the perpetrator was targeting Nancy Pelosi for political reasons, had many zip ties, and–now this one may well be disputable to you–he hit her husband in the head with a hammer and fractured his skull when he couldn’t find her. A fuse that is not lit is not a threat to anyone. But when one is lit, we examine the source that started it. When many are lit, we’ve got a problem that’s not debatable or made up.
You have obviously formed an opinion that confirms what you are already pre-disposed to believe. Your opinion may turn out to be valid, but it’s too soon to know for sure. I’m keeping my mind open as I always do in these cases. There is always more to the story than first comes out – no matter who is involved.
Whether the guy is deranged or not is beside the point. People who are unstable are targets for conspiracy theorists. The conspiracy theories he seems to have been embracing are extreme right wing fantasies. It is not the political left that has been pushing this garbage. You don’t have to be a liberal to figure out that this guy’s delusion have been fanned by the right.
Mark, why do you think the assailant was charged by the police with multiple felonies?
Let’s try it this way:
How is “The most likely explanation…” congruent with “waiting for important information to be revealed before forming one’s opinion”? And why do you dismiss the facts of breaking in, targeting Nancy Pelosi, zip ties, and a fractured skull–a HAMMER and a FRACTURED SKULL–as “opinion” and take your opinion to replace “waiting for important information”? It’s very easy to dismantle this kind of, what’s more thinly-veiled than thinly-veiled, of, of…I can’t think of a word. At least sophistry admits a modicum of logic, however falsely it may be applied.
Thank you, Greg.
Here is a longer essay that has the space to explore this issue in greeater depth. Don’t be shocked if relevant information is disclosed in the next week that sheds new light on the preferred narrative. about this incident.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/it-can-ruin-your-career-glenn-greenwald-explains-why-journalists-are-terrified-to-question-paul-pelosi-narrative
The intruder into the Pelosi home has been charged with multiple felonies, based on police reports.
The police were at the scene.
Was Glenn Greenwald?
Why do you think he knows more than the police?
Last I heard, he was living in Brazil.
Glenn Greenwald explains!! Oh. Sorry. Trying to catch. My. Breath. Hard to laugh heartily and type at the same time! Hold my soda, please, I’m afraid it’ll spill.
You clearly – like almost everyone else here – never ventures outside the far Left bubble. The essay I linked to raises reasonable questions about the Paul Pelosi assault. It’s irrelevant who raised them (hint: that’s called ad hominem).
There is nothing wrong with an ad hominem reaction although Glen could have been politer in the way he expressed his opinion that Greenwald is typically someone whose opinion will always be extremely skewed to the right. Actually I found most of the questions rather silly, but to claim no one of a liberal persuasion would be interested in the answers is absurd. If the news had just broken, which at that time is typically rather sketchy/incomplete, I totally understand why the questions would be asked. Early reports of any event tend to be less than complete and often contain some inaccuracies or need clarification.
However, I find some of the reactions from the right to the attack on Paul Pelosi particularly repugnant. Elon Musk’s tweet was everything I abhor about the extremist right. Donald Jr.’s tweets are worthy of a poorly behaved jr. high brat, and the attempt at humor from the Republican candidate for Arizona governor Kari Lake were, to say the least, tasteless. Need I mention the Republican legislators who have encouraged violence and refuse to take any responsibility when it happens with more and more frequency?
When the Republicans become a party of conscience again, I may even vote for some of them as I have in the past. I no longer recognize anything in it worth supporting. It has lost its moral compass as Republicans who still have a moral code have already recognized.
Oh FFS, Mark. You were doing so well and then you had to go and say “far left”. Literally no one (besides me) on this blog is even left, let alone “far left”. This is a solidly liberal blog. Liberalism is “centrism”. It’s solidly capitalistic and imperialistic, both of which are anathema to the left.
Hey, this blog is not imperialist. Only those who support Putin’s aggression are imperialist.
I wouldn’t describe it as capitalist either.
Most people who comment here are “social democrats,” supporting higher taxes on the rich and better government programs for those who need them, like the child tax credit, which cut child poverty in half but was killed by Republicans and Manchin.
I’d describe this blog as in the mold of FDR and the New Deal.
This is from the NY Post website (right wing), 10-31-22, and answers Mark’s or Glenn Greenwald’s baloney: QUOTE – The affidavit described how DePape had broken into the Pelosi residence through a glass door at the rear of the house using a hammer and then gone upstairs, where he encountered Paul, who had been asleep at the time.
According to the affidavit, DePape said he was looking for Nancy Pelosi — who was then in Washington D.C.
DePape had intended to tie up Paul with zip ties, but he was able to move into a bathroom and place a 911 call.
Realizing this, DePape took Paul downstairs and they answered the door to San Francisco Police Department officers, both men struggling with the hammer.
Shortly after, DePape pulled the hammer away and hit Paul in the head with it, before being restrained and arrested by officers. End quote
In the aerial pictures of the house you could see the broken windows which showed the forcible entry into the residence.
What the hell happened to Greenwald, he used to be a lefty, now he’s a tool for the far right wing crazies?
Greenwald likes to appear on Tucker Carlson’s show. He went so far left in his hatred of Democrats that he ended upon the far right.
Twitter was never the great thing people thought.
Musk just makes obvious the inherent problems of the platform.
He has said he is an absolutist…
Go figure, birds of the feather
eat the same fish.
He seems to be thriving in the
‘merica fish pond where the
omnipotent, absolutist,
scotus, holds absolute
power.
As it is written, the
flounders left the royal
fish pond and made their
own…
The Intercept article is indeed hilarious, and a reason why I’m not on Twitter. I have enough surveillance in my life without being Elon Musk’s product. He is a horrible human being.
Poor Paul Pelosi! I hope he recovers.
Elon Musk is a child. The Intercept article is already proving partly true. Twitter thankfully is somewhat doomed. I say partly and somewhat because as long as there are companies paying for ads on Faux News, there will be companies paying for ads on twitchy Twitter. They’re just not the big companies. Twitter will be selling gold plated coins and refinanced mortgages soon.
Reed Hastings is a child. Bill Gates is too. Tech billionaires are spoiled brats who never grew up. They still play with toys and have wild imaginations.
In a series, “Art vs. Reality,” the point was discussing paintings depicting “beheadings” documenting history. The narrator said, “It was happening 500 years ago, but we just found out about it” in recent years. I had a discussion with a San Jose Mercury News sportswriter trying to interview an athlete about defensive play. They got into a spat (sort of) and “the spat” not the story went viral within seconds. He said it was time to get out because it was not about facts or journalistic quality anymore, it’s about how quickly things go viral: the delivery system — pure sensationalism. And then just like the kids in my classroom would often say, “My bad.” But you already said it. I cringe ever time I thing about Mr. Pelosi being hit in the skull with a hammer. Like the people in the movie “Happy” stated, “I would never live in America because it is way too violent.” Be kind to each other.
Has any in-office or candidate from the GOP said with no qualifiers this was heinous and it needs to stop?
A local ultra (but not off the rails) conservative radio talk show host said the following on Friday (not exact quote):
“As you all know, I disagree with everything about Nancy Pelosi. I don’t like her or her politics – or anything she says and does. When I heard the news about her husband I was sick to my stomach (that’s an exact quote). I couldn’t move. It’s devastating. This can’t go on.”
I wondered how many people in office, running for office, or former (uggh) in office will say that in the days to come.
No qualifiers. No “Yes, but…” No – Well a lot of people really don’t like her but…” Just a flat out immediate response: This is wrong and this is bad and it’s got to stop!”
Twitter is not journalism, but for the CEO OF ANY COMPANY to say “there is a “tiny possibility” this is true is egregious and sick.
This commentator sounds reasonable.unfortunately a large number of MAGA types are spreading fake news.
I so hope that the Intercept article has predicted the future. Elon Musk appears to me to be a very creative thinker without a clue how to make his ideas reality other than find people who do. Since he seems to be kicking out people who may have some institutional knowledge he is sadly in need of, I question whether his vision, however amorphous that is, can be turned into a feasible reality.
It is way past time to rein in billiionnaires who think their wealth qualifies them to control the world.
At least Musk can’t run for president, but now that his principal residence is in Texas, he could run for governor there.
If Musk does with Twitter what’s suspected from his previous behavior on social media, that may force Congress (but only if the Democrats hold the majority) to pass legislation that holds social media websites responsible for the content regardless of who posts it.
Remember that talk by Orin Hatch about the possibility of amending the constitution to allow people like Arnold to run for president? Expect that to come back soon. Musk can easily fund the “authentic” rumor.
Thank the Lard Ahhnold can’t be Prez.
The guy has more muscles in his head than in his body.
I’d take Musk any day over a Californicator like Ahhnold.
Fortunately for all of us, Ortin Hatch is dead now.
Musk will turn twitter into his own personal propoganda trumpet. Free speech will mean maximizing Twitter algorithm to prioritize views which align with his own and diminishing views that don’t. A dream company to takeover and own for an egotistical narcissist, something even Trump couldn’t do.