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“Elon Musk Proves That He’s His Own Best Spokesperson”
Especially since the main topic of reporting seems to be on an equal footing.
A self-confessed “free speech absolutist,” Mr. Musk has said he wants Twitter to be a marketplace where any idea, no matter how unpopular, can be voiced. He has also worked with Walter Isaacson, who has written biographies of Steve Jobs, Leonardo da Vinci and Albert Einstein and is now working on a book about Mr. Musk. “He was very, very open,” Mr. Isaacson told the Times last year, “not just about him and the people around him, but he was very good at giving me access to people from his past.”
What we consider before using anonymous sources. Do the sources know the information? What is your motivation for telling us this? Have they proven reliable in the past? Can we confirm the information? Even with those questions answered, The Times uses anonymous sources as a last resort. The reporter and at least one editor know the identity of the source.
At the same time, Mr. Musk has publicly taken on journalists who appear to have gotten under his skin. In December, Twitter suspended the accounts of eight journalists, including Ryan Mac, a technical reporter for The Times. Those suspensions came a day after Mr. Musk pulled the plug on more than 25 accounts tracking planes belonging to government agencies, billionaires and celebrities.
Some of the journalists blocked by Twitter had reported on the accounts tracking flight data or chronicled Mr Musk’s leadership of the company in detail. “You are not special because you are a journalist; You’re a citizen, so no special treatment,” Mr Musk told reporters during a Twitter audio session shortly after the accounts were disabled. After criticism from First Amendment supporters and threats of sanctions from European regulators, Twitter restored the journalists’ accounts.
One reporter, speaking on condition of anonymity because his employer wouldn’t allow him to speak publicly about Mr. Musk, likened writing on Twitter to reporting on a White House where the person in charge is both press-obsessed and chaotic , leading to debates as to whether his complaints about the news media are part of his genius or a manifestation of his childishness.
Mr. Musk has hired communications consultants at times. But his history of being moody and saying inflammatory things (often via tweet) has sometimes created challenges for the advisors brought in to deal with those impulses.
In 2018, Mr. Musk insulted one of his critics, calling him a “paedophile” or paedophile in a series of angry tweets. Amid significant conflict, he turned to communications consultant Juleanna Glover, whose clients included John McCain and James Murdoch and who had advised Musk’s electric car company Tesla. Mr Musk eventually apologized for the tweets.
Source: www.nytimes.com
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