At this moment, the LA Times, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and the Guardian are all giving front-page play to the fact that Elon Musk has decided to reinstate Donald Trump's Twitter account.
Why? Have we learned nothing in the past few years about the difference between news and mindless clickbait?
I have decided to switch most of my social media consumption to the Fediverse, specifically Pixelfed and Mastodon -- as a result of the arbitrary rules and bullshitting Musk re Trump.
About half of the law, science, and liberal politics has switched. The notable exceptions are mainline reporters, baby boomers, and those who do not want to have to rebuild their list of followers from scratch. People hate paradigm shifts, so I get it.
Local newspapers should look into setting up their own Mastadon servers and build out from there....
Not ones to push the technological envelope, some journalists are discussing going back to LISTSERV™s.
Sure, I know the difference. One makes money and the other is news.
I'm quite resigned to spending the next 12 months watching the Washington Press Rabble spew a torrent of inane tripe about Trump and the Republican primary, interspersed with reports of what the Crazy Caucus has been up to in the House. I'm not even sure we can criticise journalists and their editors for this, since it appears to be what the majority of their audience wants. Even liberal websites/blogs still devote a good proportion of their internet space to "OMG did you see what they said/did today?" stories.
Elon Musk has, unfortunately, risen to the same sort of "media interest" levels of Trump, so any time either of them sneezes, the press just has to catch their cold. If they're both sneezing at the same time? You better believe they're hoping for pneumonia.
Don't click on the stories and it just might stop. And yeah, I know I'm saying this after I clicked on a story about it. =)
I "deactivated" my account. The website replied that something went wrong. I'll say.
In so far as it signals how Must will (try to) run Twitter it is newsworthy. Of course there is the overarching question of how long Twitter will continue to run…
And in terms of the specifics of reinstating Trump: https://thehill.com/policy/technology/3743666-trump-says-he-has-no-interest-in-returning-to-twitter-after-reinstatement/amp/
On the other hand, if the former guy (the LOSER!) says it, it's almost certainly a lie.
Certainly that is likely as not the correct default interpretation of anything Trump utters. I suspect it all depends on how much more money he can wring from “Truth Social” before tossing it under the bus.
You're on fire today!
Shirley the likes of Robert Reich can’t be fooled?? …
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/nov/21/elon-musk-went-on-a-firing-frenzy-at-twitter-now-hes-paying-for-it
"Have we learned nothing in the past few years about the difference between news and mindless clickbait?"
No. And Republicans, Trump, and all the grifters on the political right know exactly how to exploit this.
Yes it's bad they're only turning on Trump because he's a loser, but he's only a loser because he's out of fashion. He's like clothes from 20 years ago.
Careful there. Everything old is new again, and that definitely goes for clothing fashion.
Better to characterize Trump as a POS. That's never is fashion, and will only grow mold on it over time.
If you believe, as I do, that Trump is angling for (a promise of) pardon in return for an endorsement for 2024, then you'd expect his strategy is to whip up his base to a frenzy of support and excitement, not try to sound reasonable and electable (to me, his announcement speech the other night was very much a whipping up speech, not one you'd give if you seriously wanted to be president). As part of a base whipping strategy you'd probably skip Twitter and stay with the hardcore on Truth Social (and I also imagine it's part of his contract with Truth Social he has to be exclusive there, for at least a while).
But more generally, yeah, who cares. Musk has already made Twitter unreadable and pointless.
(a promise of) a* pardon...
The Trump / MAGA / midterms, Elon shit show will continue as long as there are clicks to be sold and practically unlimited airtime hours that need to be filled with pundits spewing non-stop bull shit from all sides of the political spectrum.
That said, I would certainly enjoy seeing a total schmuck like Elon loose his shirt on the Twitter acquisition. According to Bloomberg, the Twitter bank lenders have been receiving offers of $0.60 per $1.00 to sell down a portion of the $13B Twitter debt used to fund part of his acquisition. In typical bank loan syndications, having to sell at a discount beyond giving up a portion of the origination fee collected is a really bad day.
The good news is that you will not need to worry much about employees jobs if Twitter implodes since most have either been let go or quit.
Can't any idiot these days just pay $8 and pretend they're Trump?
Yeah. The "mindless clickbait" makes the most money and costs next to nothing to produce. Which do you think a purely profit-generating enterprise is going to favor?
Given his mental deterioration, Dems should be delighted that Trump would have an outlet for his meltdown. Dems should stop talking about Trump and let him do all of the work destroying himself
????????????????????
His followers are too enthralled to notice.
Why is anyone surprised or even disappointed? The system has performed flawlessly. This is what we wanted. Well not all of us anyway. But when the Invisible Hand strokes the levers of the world, who can stop it?
I don't know who "we" refers to and I can't speak for them, but the press/media have learned that Trump draws attention, that's how they make money, and they don't give a damn about democracy, the nation, or the people who live in it.
I'll ignore the Elon-related news for the time being and read the book when it comes out. Maybe Owen Matthews will write it given that he just published one that "traces Putin’s transformation from calculating and subtle master of political opportunity to a reckless gambler whose aggression threatens to destroy" the entity he ostensibly leads.
Many of the smart people I follow think Musk is intentionally trying to run Twitter into bankruptcy so he can renegotiate his deal. I'd hazard a guess that reinstating Trump is a quick way to get your remaining advertisers stampeding to the door and expediting that process along.
He reinstated Kanye too which adds to your argument, but how can he renegotiate the deal? Isn’t that over and done?
Yes.
Such "smart" people evidently are unacquainted with corporate finance and legal.
Bankruptcy is not something equity holder is going to like, not at all.
Rather Musk is out of his depth with managing (versus exploiting) media company and doesn't know where to go.
To remind everyone, both Gab and Truth Social were built on forks from Mastodon.
My cousin could truly receive money in their spare time on their laptop. their best friend had been doing this 4 only about 12 months and by now cleared the debt. in their mini mansion and bought a great Car. That is what we do.. https://earningblue.blogspot.com/
Even if he did get back on Twitter what would he even say?
His rally was lifeless, he was just going through the motions; Biden doesn't animate him like Obama and Hillary did.