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Musk slams 'corporate journalism' in blistering series of tweets

Magnate criticizes media response to "Twitter files."

December 28, 2022 1:51pm

Updated: December 28, 2022 4:33pm

Twitter CEO and increasingly contentious cultural critic Elon Musk this week slammed mainstream media for what he indicated was a lackluster response to the bombshell "Twitter files" his company has released over the last several weeks. 

Those files have revealed a wide-ranging and at times conspiratorial effort by Twitter moderators to censor and restrict huge portions of speech on the platform, particularly those surrounding COVID-19 and President Joe Biden's family. 

On Tuesday, responding to a writer's Substack post regarding "the extent to which the corporate media has become the propaganda arm of the state," Musk wrote on Twitter: "Why is corporate journalism rushing to defend the state instead of the people?"

"Why would anyone trust corpo journalism?" he wrote later. 

Elsewhere, following a CNBC commentator's claim that Musk's "reputation with Twitter is impacting his reputation when it comes to all of his companies," Musk himself responded: "The legacy media should worry about its reputation. We have only just begun."

The business tycoon at one point indicated his willingness to consider Twitter's purchase of Substack, a popular online writing platform, in order to bring about "massive competition for obsolete legacy corporate media."

"I’m open to the idea," he said.

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