A journalist obtains internal documents from a major corporation and sheds light on a political dispute that flared in the waning days of the 2020 presidential race.
Nothing is typical when it comes to Musk and his social media presence.
The so-calledTwitter Files, released Friday evening by the independent journalist Matt Taibbi, set off a fire among pundits, media ethicists and lawmakers. It gave a glimpse into the fractured landscape of news, where a story's reception is often shaped by readers' assumptions about the motives of both reporters and subjects.
The tempest began when Mr. Musk teased the release of internal documents that he said would reveal the story behind the decision to restrict posts about the Bidens.
The account of Mr. Taibbi, an iconoclast journalist who shares some of Mr. Musk's dislike for the mainstream news media, was pointed to by Mr. Musk. Mr. Taibbi published a report in the form of a lengthy thread on the topic.
The exchanges were framed by Mr. Musk and Mr. Taibbi as evidence of liberalism. The exchanges showed a group of executives debating how to deal with an unconfirmed news report that was based on information from a stolen laptop.
Many modern news stories are weaponized in service of a lot of pre-existing arguments.
Tucker Carlson, the host of Fox News, claimed that the documents show a systemic violation of the First Amendment, the largest example of that in modern history. House Republicans have called for an investigation into the business dealings of Hunter Biden, but there is no evidence that the report shows that there was a conspiracy between Joe Biden's aides and the social media site. The decision to block the Post story was reversed by Jack Dorsey, who told Congress it had been a mistake.
The release of the documents was cited as a sign of recklessness by the former executives. Yoel Roth, the former head of trust and safety, said that publicizing uncensored documents was "a fundamentally unacceptable thing to do" and put people in harm's way. In retrospect, Mr. Musk thinks we should have excluded some email addresses.
The central role of Mr. Taibbi caused uproar.
Mr. Taibbi rose to prominence because he presented himself as an honest truth teller. In an article that galvanized public outrage toward Wall Street, he labeled Goldman Sachs a "vampire squid" His fan base shifted because he was skeptical of the claims of Russian involvement in the election of Mr. Trump.
Mr. Taibbi said that his thread was based on thousands of internal documents. Mr. Musk had said that he would reveal information about the handling of the report. Shortly before Mr. Taibbi reported, Mr. Musk wrote, "This will be awesome." Mr Taibbi said he agreed to certain conditions in exchange for the documents.
What appeared to be an orchestrated disclosure was seized upon by skeptics. Imagine volunteering to do online PR work for the world's richest man on a Friday night, in service of nakedly and cynically right-wing narratives, and then pretending you're speaking truth to power
Mr. Taibbi said he was looking forward to seeing how many of them have run stories for anonymous sources.
Mr. Musk and Mr. Taibbi didn't reply to questions.
It's no surprise that Mr Musk is a fan of Mr. Taibbi. In a live audio session on Saturday, Mr. Musk said he was disappointed that more mainstream media outlets did not pick up Mr. Taibbi's reporting.
The New York Times did not get a response to their request.
Mr. Musk gave documents to Bari Weiss, a former editor and columnist at The Times whose Substack newsletter bills itself as an alternative to traditional news sources. Ms. Weiss didn't say anything on Sunday.
Some strange bedfellows have arisen from the commotion. Mr. Taibbi used to compare former President George W. Bush to a key. Kevin McCarthy defended his reporting during an interview on Fox News. Mr. McCarthy said that Mr. Musk was being accused of lying.
A sentiment that Mr. Taibbi himself expressed in a headline on his Substack page that offered a preview of his upcoming posts was perhaps the only universally accepted conclusion from the release of theTwitter Files.
Mr. Taibbi sent a note to readers. It is about to get strange here.
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