Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

What Trump Did to the G.O.P., Musk Did to Twitter
The New York Times ^ | Sept. 20, 2024, 5:05 a.m. ET | Michelle Goldberg

Posted on 09/20/2024 10:25:49 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum

There are many damning anecdotes in Kate Conger and Ryan Mac’s new book, “Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter,” but one from February of last year perfectly captures the astonishing pettiness of the world’s richest man.

Attending the Super Bowl as a guest of Rupert Murdoch, Musk had one of the most luxurious seats in the house, but rather than watching the game, he was glued to his phone in dismay. Both he and President Biden had sent tweets cheering on the Philadelphia Eagles, but even though Biden had far fewer followers than Musk on the platform, the president’s tweet garnered 29 million views to Musk’s 8.4 million. Livid, Musk demanded that his engineers find out why his tweet was underperforming Biden’s. He left the game early to fly back to his San Francisco office, where dozens of employees were summoned to meet him on a Sunday night.

Eventually, to placate their boss, the engineers tweaked Twitter’s algorithm to boost Musk’s posts, pushing them into users’ feeds whether they follow him or not. “In effect, Musk’s tweets would have higher priority over any other post,” write Conger and Mac, technology reporters for The New York Times. As they put it toward the end of the book, “A man allergic to criticism had bought himself the largest audience in the world, and hoped for praise.” No wonder he and Trump get along.

What Trump has done to the Republican Party, Musk has done to Twitter, which he’s renamed X. It was always bad, but now it’s much worse. Because Musk has ruined its system for verifying users and gutted its content moderation, it’s teeming with fake news; on Wednesday, for example, it was full of false claims, amplified by Musk himself, that a car with an...

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Humor
KEYWORDS: boomersareidiots; elonmusk; gaslighting; libel; michellegoldberg; michellegoldbrick; newyorkslimes; newyorktimes; slander; smear; trump; twitter
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-28 next last
There are many damning anecdotes in Kate Conger and Ryan Mac’s new book, “Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter,” but one from February of last year perfectly captures the astonishing pettiness of the world’s richest man.

Michelle says, without evidence.

1 posted on 09/20/2024 10:25:49 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum
Trump turned the GOP toward truth.

Musk did the same for Twitter, now X.

2 posted on 09/20/2024 10:27:02 AM PDT by marktwain (The Republic is at risk. Resistance to the Democratic Party is Resistance to Tyranny. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum

Boy, you can’t make this stuff up!

Elon made it OK to question vax, masks and everything else. He single handedly enabled free speech online... But according to the nyt he destroyed Twitter? Idiots.


3 posted on 09/20/2024 10:31:29 AM PDT by toddausauras (Trump 2024)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum

Musk fired something like 80% of Twitter staff, and at the same immediately increased Twitter usership without any effect in operations.

Those 80% were de facto employees of FBI/Homeland security and were engaging in government censorship requests.

Ad revenue declined greatly as many of America’s woke, political corporations backed away


4 posted on 09/20/2024 10:35:53 AM PDT by PGR88
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: toddausauras

Old Gray Hag rides in on Witch’s Broom damning all who would listen. Not Hillary!


5 posted on 09/20/2024 10:36:06 AM PDT by Colt1851Navy (What was wrong with Nixon?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: marktwain

‘In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.’


6 posted on 09/20/2024 10:36:45 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum

Trumps appeal is to the working class....the ones who lost their jobs to China and who’s salaries are undercut by illegal immigration.

Elon’s (main) appeal is to free speech proponents and anti-cancel culture in general.

Somehow championing these issues has been labeled as racist and tyrannical.

This means they make a great team in my book.


7 posted on 09/20/2024 10:39:18 AM PDT by Mustangman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum

Musk has 200 million followers. How many readers does the NY Times have?


8 posted on 09/20/2024 10:39:50 AM PDT by FreeReign
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum

What I Did to My Toilet Bowl This Morning, the New York Times Did to News Reportage.


9 posted on 09/20/2024 10:41:08 AM PDT by LegendHasIt
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum; All

And Sean O’Brien did to the teamsters. If the vote were real you’d see Twitter like numbers everywhere and the teamsters results is proof.


10 posted on 09/20/2024 10:44:00 AM PDT by wiseprince (Me)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum

Yes, lefties really hate Musk. Another hatchet job... all hearsay, from NYPravda.


11 posted on 09/20/2024 10:45:00 AM PDT by Seruzawa ("The Political left is the Garden of Eden of incompetence" - Marx the Smarter (Groucho))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum

NY Times fabulist Michelle Goldberg falsely claims that her opinions are fact.


12 posted on 09/20/2024 10:48:04 AM PDT by kiryandil (Kraft durch Freude! - The Kamunist and The Walzrus )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: FreeReign

Many more than it did a decade ago. It is one of the best performing media assets in the Western Hemisphere.


13 posted on 09/20/2024 10:50:20 AM PDT by nwrep
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum

twitter was a playground for journalists who considered themselves princes and princesses. Musk changed that. I’m sure Goldberg doesn’t like to be community noted or told to STFU.

My twitter account is still suspended. Although I asked for it, I did not receive amnesty


14 posted on 09/20/2024 10:53:04 AM PDT by DeplorablePaul
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: kiryandil

Yeah Goldberg, Twitter was much better when the FBI ran it.


15 posted on 09/20/2024 10:53:41 AM PDT by OldHarbor
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum

Improved it greatly?


16 posted on 09/20/2024 10:54:01 AM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear ( Not my circus. Not my monkeys. But I can pick out the clowns at 100 yards.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Arthur Wildfire! March; Berosus; Bockscar; BraveMan; cardinal4; ...
NY Slimes smears and gaslighting:

17 posted on 09/20/2024 11:06:57 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Putin should skip ahead to where he kills himself in the bunker.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum

That’s not even close to a good analogy.


18 posted on 09/20/2024 11:09:12 AM PDT by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: FreeReign

Quite so. Seems more like Twitter is destroying the New York Times than anything else.

If a thing exists that can be destroyed by the truth, then it MUST be destroyed by the truth.


19 posted on 09/20/2024 11:19:28 AM PDT by Dr.Deth
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: marktwain

When RINO is a good thing.


20 posted on 09/20/2024 11:40:33 AM PDT by No Party Affiliation
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-28 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson