A report by freelance journalist Barry Weiss that highlighted Elon Musk’s unprecedented access to Twitter has sparked outrage among their critics.
Weiss was “given access to Twitter’s work systems, joined Slack and given a company laptop,” sources told Insider Wednesday.
“The level of access Weiss has been given to Twitter systems is typically only given to employees, a person familiar with the matter said, although it does not appear that he actually works for the company,” Insider wrote.
Weiss shared the second part of the “Twitter Files” on Thursday, in which Twitter took steps to shadow ban users such as Stanford University’s Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, who opposed long-standing COVID group thinking during the pandemic and expressed opposition to the blocks. As well-known conservatives like Fox News anchor Dan Bongino and Turning Point USA journalist Charlie Kirk.
ELON MUSK’S SECOND ‘TWITTER FILES’ BREAKDOWN Reveals ‘Secret Blacklists’, BARRY WEISS REPORTS
Barry Weiss, editor of Common Sense and host of the Halal podcast, speaks at the 2022 Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, May 3, 2022.
(REUTERS/Mike Blake)
He also said Twitter acknowledged that TikTok Libs, whose account has been repeatedly suspended for violating its “hateful conduct” policy, “did not directly violate its hateful conduct policy.”
Insider’s report notes that Weiss’ access to Twitter exceeded that granted to Substack reporter Matt Taibbi, who reported on the first installment last week, titled “The Twitter Files.”
Liberal media critics on Twitter slammed Musk’s announcement of bringing on Weiss, while leveling the public relations charge he leveled at Taibbi last week.
“If you’re a new hire on your team, it’s all pretty normal,” said Washington Post tech columnist Taylor Lorenz.
Vice News reporter Roberto Aram Ferdman tweeted: “The most obvious and ridiculous PR campaign masquerading as investigative journalism.”
MSNBC columnist Marisa Cabas wrote, “Barry Weiss sure looks like Twitter’s new publicist.”
“[S]Bari Weiss does a.) an internal witch hunt for a private company and b.) an external PR for that company,” wrote Ted Scheinman, a senior editor at the Smithsonian, adding, “no real journalist would agree to this unsavory combination. not the simplest hack.”
JIM BAKER, TWITTER ATTORNEY INVOLVED IN RUSSIAGATE AND FORMER FBI OFFICIAL WAS A CNN ANALYST.
“Weiss is an opinion writer/activist, not an investigative journalist. His whole MO is to seek out stories that aren’t representative at all, but that reflect his worldview, and don’t do extra digging that undermines that worldview. Accordingly, the next ma ‘see the data.’,’ Georgetown professor Don Moynihan strongly condemned the journalist.
Barry Weiss left The New York Times in 2020 to launch his own Substack and podcast, accusing the paper of allowing Twitter to become his “ultimate editor.”
(Getty Images/Barry Weiss)
“I hope the media doesn’t fall for this and call anything Weiss or Taibbi do journalism or act as journalists,” Yahoo senior editor Steve Mullis wrote. “It’s very ironic when you think about it [Elon Musk] fight against ‘unethical journalism’, but how unethical it is.”
Neither Weiss nor Twitter responded to Fox News’ requests for comment.
Weiss is the founder of The Free Press, a new media company, and the host of the Honest podcast, which he launched in 2020 after his abrupt exit from The New York Times as its opinion page editor.
TWITTER CONSULTANT JIM BAKER CHECKED ELON MUSK’S ‘TWITTER FILES’ WITHOUT KNOWING, MATT TAIBBY REVEALS
Musk announced Tuesday that deputy general counsel Jim Baker had been fired “in light of concerns about Baker’s possible role in suppressing information critical to public communications.”
Taibbi later revealed that Baker had checked the first batch of “Twitter files” without Musk’s knowledge.
Taibbi explained: “The production process for ‘Twitter Files’ involved delivering it to two journalists (Barry Weiss and myself) through a lawyer close to the new management. But after the initial set, things got complicated. Dam both of us in the next few days. While dealing with obstacles for new searches, @BariWeiss discovered that the person responsible for releasing the files was a person named Jim. When he called to ask for the last name “Jim”, the answer came: “Jim Baker.”
“My jaw hit the floor,” Weiss said, according to Taibbi.
Journalist Matt Taibbi leaked the “Twitter Files” at the same time on Friday.
(Daniel Zuchnik/WireImage/Getty Images)
ELON MUSK TELLS JACK DORSEY ‘CRITICAL’ TWITTER FILES ARE ‘HIDDEN’ FROM BOSSES, SUGGESTING SOME ARE ‘DELETED’
The Substack writer then shared a screenshot of the first set of files he and Weiss obtained, titled “Spectra Baker Emails.”
“Baker is a controversial figure. He has been the FBI’s subject since 2016 on everything from the Steel Dossier to the Alpha Server mess. He resigned in 2018 following an investigation into leaks to the press. out,” Taibbi told himself. followers. “The news that Baker was looking into the ‘Twitter files’ surprised everyone involved, to say the least. Twitter’s new chief, Elon Musk, moved quickly to ‘exit’ Baker on Tuesday.”
Baker appeared in the first episode, titled “Twitter Files,” shared by Taibbi on Friday night.
In revealing the internal debate over how to interpret Twitter’s crackdown Hunter Biden laptop story During the 2020 election, Baker told his colleagues, “I support the conclusion that we need more facts to assess whether the materials have been tampered with,” but that “it is reasonable to assume that they may have been.” it is necessary to be reasonable and careful,” he said.
In addition, Taibbi initially said, “Although several sources recalled hearing about a ‘general’ warning from federal law enforcement that summer about possible foreign intrusions, I have seen – a laptop there is no evidence of government involvement in the incident.”
It’s unclear whether Baker’s involvement in the investigation of the “Twitter Files” led Taibbi to reach this conclusion, or whether Baker missed files that showed the federal government’s involvement in suppressing Twitter’s story about Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Elon Musk has wasted little time making his mark on Twitter since taking over in October.
(Getty Images)
Musk has talked about being transparent Twitter’s past and present actions when it comes to selecting content on the platform, including censored content.
Twitter banned its users from sharing the New York Post’s story about Hunter Biden’s laptop in tweets and direct messages.
At the time, Twitter Safety claimed the articles violated its “infringing content policy.” Twitter’s CEO at the time, Jack Dorsey, admitted his company’s actions were a mistake.
Some critics believe that the suppression of the Hunter Biden scandal by Big Tech and the media in general was enough to tip the election in his father’s favor.