Media gets it wrong on Elon Musk and Twitter: The issue is oligarchy, not "free speech"

[marmar]

Media gets it wrong on Elon Musk and Twitter: The issue is oligarchy, not "free speech"
Mainstream media largely parrots Musk's mendacious framing — but this fight is about monopoly power, not speech

By NOLAN HIGDON
PUBLISHED APRIL 23, 2022 8:00AM


(Salon) Tesla billionaire Elon Musk's attempt to buy Twitter has rightly drawn concern from critics, but legacy media coverage has inaccurately framed his bid as a story about free speech. In actuality, it is the latest iteration of oligarchs' quest to control the news media: Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post; Rupert Murdoch owns the Fox networks and several newspapers and former President Donald Trump has also tried to get in the game (with less notable success) with Truth Social. In this context, Musk is unremarkable. He is just the most recent billionaire to flex his economic muscle by taking over a major communication platform.

Where a democracy sees the people utilize electoral politics — typically through their elected representatives – to exert control over the nation, an oligarchy relies on a small group of wealthy people who wield disproportionate power. Almost a decade ago, researchers from Princeton University noted that the U.S. was becoming more of an oligarchy and plutocracy and less a democratic republic. The framers of the Constitution ensconced freedom of the press in the First Amendment as a way to achieve, promote and protect a democratic process. By the 1980s, however, a handful of corporations owned the majority of U.S. news media. In their pursuit of maximizing profit, corporate news media abandoned its civic duty to inform and serve the electorate. Instead, it overwhelmingly produces content that normalizes corporatism, celebrates the wealthy, and distracts and divides audiences from engaging in meaningful, productive dialogue about their nation and global affairs.

Musk purports that free speech absolutism, not profit or power, is driving his interest in purchasing Twitter. To be clear, freedom of speech is critically important, and the public would be well served if the news media investigated the complexities of how big-tech and the government collude to skirt the constitutional protections of free speech and the free press. But that's not the approach that the corporate news media has taken. It has largely avoided any investigation that interrogates Musk's motives for seeking to buy Twitter, instead acting as stenographers for Musk's claim that he is motivated by free speech absolutism.

Musk is emblematic of the Big Tech industry, which tends to shroud destructive digital products in the veneer of progress. Take the costly lies that Elizabeth Holmes perpetuated as part Theranos' purported effort to make blood work easier and more affordable. Even more to the point, Facebook (now Meta) and Twitter's promises to build communities and strengthen democracies ring hollow when democracy is in peril and nations are so divided that some, including the U.S., fear a civil war may be on the horizon. For these reasons, the corporate news media should investigate rather than perpetuate Musk's claim that free speech is his driving concern in his pursuit of purchasing Twitter. Even a cursory search of Musk's recent past clearly shows his urges to censor and retaliate against those he believes have attacked him, and also to wield his wealth and power to control or curate narratives with which he disagrees. So Musk is clearly no free speech absolutist. He's a billionaire who wants to buy a platform that's become akin to the public square. ...............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2022/04/23/media-gets-it-on-elon-musk-and-twitter-the-issue-is-oligarchy-not-free-speech/

[Cracklin Charlie]

1. "Legacy Media Coverage"

Those guys need a better name.

Something that better reflects their role as the mouthpiece of the kleptocracy.

I propose a naming contest.

My entry: Legacy media coverage …“Mouthpiece of The Kleptocracy”

[dalton99a]

2. Kick

[KPN]

4. No surprise. The media is owned by oligach.