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Elon Musk’s release of the “Twitter Files,” the New York Post’s efforts to suppress the infamous Hunter Biden laptop story, was not only news, but an attempt to subvert the old media’s approach to news.
Instead of appearing on 60 Minutes like most CEOs or giving inside material to the New York Times or Washington Post, Musk turned the story over to independent journalists Matt Taibi and Barry Weiss, who then broke the story on his platform. Not only that, it mocks the release to create a kind of meeting for waste documents.
The billionaire tycoon behind Tesla and SpaceX hasn’t been shy about his desire to create his latest toy, Twitter, a platform where a new kind of journalism can emerge and thrive. He recently spoke about the value of citizen journalism and criticized the “media elite,” calling their control over the news an “information oligopoly.”
Taibi’s pre-publicized tweets on Dec. 2 completely bypassed the mainstream media, stripping him of his usual role in directing how revelations are presented to the public, such as efforts to suppress the laptop story. This is a potential sea change in journalism in America, and it’s not just Musk.
JIM BAKER, TWITTER-BORN LAWYER AND FORMER FBI OFFICIAL, CNN ANALYST
As an aide to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Chistina Pushow made waves this summer by rejecting legacy media mandates to cover the Florida Republican Party’s Sunshine Summit. He later says of the mainstream press, “What do we do? We cut them off. Treat them like activists, because they are.”
Both Musk and Pushou are targeting one of the last major advantages traditional media has over independent media in the digital age. For as long as the media has existed, major powerhouses have used their massive audiences to convince insiders, whether in politics, big tech, or anywhere else, to bring big stories to them first. This entry is now in question.
Elon Musk has changed Twitter’s approval policy.
(Muhammed Selim Korkutata / Anadolu Agency)
If Pushou and others can convince conservatives to shut down stories from the establishment press and use independent media instead, Twitter and Musk could be big beneficiaries. After all, Bluebird is truly where Indian news sites live and breathe.
In this new journalistic ecosystem, a must-see news story that only breaks on Twitter can become a staple of American journalism. Tune in tonight for some amazing revelations about this, that or the other. With Musk’s plans to allow longer and longer videos on the platform, as well as increased live communication, such as his appearance on Twitter Spaces this week, the site could almost become an open-source news network.
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The biggest obstacle to Musk’s plans to reinvent journalism is that still only a tiny fraction of Americans use Twitter at all, about six percent. And while news dumps like the Twitter Files can water down pedigreed heritage outlets, they can’t make them drink. Indeed, while the liberal media gave very limited mention of the revelations about the suppression of the laptop story, their general reaction was nothing to be seen here.
A month into Musk’s leadership at Twitter, which is valued at $44 billion, we can see that his plans for the platform are very high, perhaps even higher in his special case. Among other things, he bought the place where the country’s journalists mingled and mingled, setting the contours of news coverage.
But under Musk’s leadership, Twitter could become more than the news industry’s office water cooler, but become a leader in the news industry itself.
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