If the story of Twitter's former overlords is about their prejudices and power trips, the question now is what Elon Musk will do with the powerful tools they created.
It would be really nice to have a filter that spares the reader all the incendiary rhetoric. Woke, Nazi, Reich wing, etc... are thrown so often it is hard to follow. I appreciate everyone's passion but it would nice to have some decorum if possible.
David Wallace-Wells, writing in The New York Times today, March 18, "American Has Decided It Went Overboard on Covid-19" has these kind words to say about Bari and her crew:
"In Britain, the WhatsApp leak has been narrativized by the British press as a cartoon of feckless leadership. In the United States, the equivalent leak was the “Twitter files,” when internal company deliberations over pandemic messaging were examined by contrarian quasi-journalists deputized by Elon Musk shortly after his takeover of the company."
I am an old man who no longer believes he can understand things from causes. Best I can do is tell myself stories about what is happening before me — stories that allow me to move and perhaps even to thrive in the complexity of my experiences. Thank God I get a lot of help with that. My bet is you do too. I appreciate your stories.
I sincerely hope that The Free Press pursues the role of government actors in offering political issues for suppression on the Twitter platform.
We all should know and be wary of the censorial nature of government suggesting action as behind each suggestion is the sense that government agents can make life miserable for any person or organization choosing not to play along.
It is immensely distressing to see Supervisory Special Agent-in-Charge, Elvis Chan, of the San Francisco FBI office leading the Intelligence Community's activities. Given both his prominent role and his frequent interactions, it is difficult to believe that such activity lacked official sanction and coordination from the highest levels of both the FBI AND the DoJ.
These actions are, without doubt, the biggest threat to our constitutional republic, certainly in my lifetime. We now know of government actors trying to influence the outcomes of the past two presidential elections and the congressional elections of 2022. These actors need to be exposed and their activities explored in open hearings and under oath.
Additionally, the FBI and the DoJ should not be permitted to decide which questions can be asked or answered.
I have chosen to subscribe to this civic effort by the publisher, editors, and writers of The Free Press because they demonstrate a level of integrity that the mainstream media abandoned more than a decade ago. I wish them well.
As someone who is retired and has both the time and the Interest, I offer my services as a researcher to do some of the dog work of reviewing and parsing documents that might pertain to their investigations.
No, you don't have to "hack/steal" to get it. But you do generally have to either hire someone (a reporter or other researcher) and/or have the sleuthing skills to find it, either thru D&B, LexisNexis or some other (generally expensive) service. It's generally known as "doxxing". D&B is the old Dunn & Bradstreet btw.
I have really enjoyed your reporting thus far on all things Twitter. And I too have read reporting on Twitter's history of "Pressing the thumb hard in favor on the left" - most of which I agree with, and why I was hopeful for Elon's new approach “If there is one information source that breaks ranks, then I think it ultimately forces others not to have the same narrative,” he said. “If even one organization competes hard for the truth, others will have to follow.”
You then followed up that hopeful idea by writing "But if the story of Old Twitter is about the biases and prejudices and power trips of the company’s former overlords, the question is what Musk will now do with the powerful tools they created?"
Great question!
To date it appears that "power trips" and "prejudices" have simply shifted from a team of ideologues to the ideas of one supremely powerful man - who is proving to misuse it already.
I should be, but am not, amazed by the obsessive coverage of Musk. For heaven's sake, he's only owned the Twitter platform for two months. Someone expects a complete transformation in that time?
And the Aha! moment over Musk's suspension of Twitter accounts? My goodness. Doxing is serious business, and ending it a Good Thing. So Musk's temporary suspension of some accounts may have been overkill? This seems to me inconsequential in the long run, and maybe even the short run, too.
But seriously, Musk has the right to gloat for a while. It's the nature of any struggle to celebrate a victory with a victory lap. We'll just have to give him the benefit of the doubt for a while. Everything I have seen from this man has been consistent with the idea that he wants to make the world a better place. Let him celebrate his victory for a while.
This is a big deal, and a lot of us are celebrating with him. If it works, the world will be a much better place.
I suspect there are forces who oppose free speech, and the old school one-way conversation that is old school media certainly will not go down without a fight. The Pharmaceutical industry which is the primary sponsor the old school media may have things to hide, among others.
There will be attacks, and some will be vicious. I hope there is no bloodshed and I do fear for his family, because we have already seen that some of these people will stop at nothing.
Why do you hide behind a moniker? Are you ashamed of your views? Are you afraid to stand behind your words like an adult? The Biden Regime is a wicked and corrupt, who wantonly trample on my basic, fundamental civil rights, while useless idiots, like you, cheer for the dictators, believing you are immune to the evils of a corrupt and wicked government.
History proves you are the fool.
I usually don't dialogue with anonymous cowards because they never engage, they only want to fight, while adding nothing to the discussion but Democratic Party talking points - you are boring.
If Bari Weiss were truly interested in bridging the political/ideological divide she'd interview former President Donald Trump rather than cheering for her tribe. Besides the American people, the biggest victim of official government censorship and corruption is Trump. Trump did not collude with Russia, but was right about being spied on by the FBI (Democrat Party owned and operated). For getting elected, and promising to drain the swamp, the IC, King of the Swamp Creatures, ramped up their campaign to weaponize law enforcement and use the powers of government against a political rival - disgusting.
Trump got a lot more right than wrong. Trump's lies were about crowd size, hand size, and other innocuous, but annoying petty lies. While Democrats lie about all things, big, small, inconsequential, some very consequential, and others are a matter of life and death.
Trump was right about the border, Trump was right about China. Trump was right about energy and trade policies, and Trump was right about the Chinese Virus, the lockdowns, mandatory jabs, school shutdowns, and mandatory masking.
Democrat/Leftists should be ashamed for allowing themselves to be manipulated by corrupt Democratic Party activists in the media into believing the very worst about half of the American population.
Bari, you continue to disappoint those of us who came to your defense when the foreign owned and anti-American NYT fired you. Interview President Trump, he's confident enough to sit with you and answer your questions - it would be a great opportunity to give you, and your audience, a chance at redemption for believing all of their lies.
Ochs-Sulzberger, Bezos, Murdoch, Redstone, seems like the concentrated ownership of news entities is well established. What causes you distress about twitter? Why is it different from these other institutions? True, Musk likes to be out front but one could argue quite easily that adds to the transparency.
No, I didn't read your threads before because I wasn't on this forum when January 6th stuff was happening. And that gets reported on a lot. What doesn't get reported on is that this has been happening on the other side for ages. The Reed college incident was a long time ago. I understand there are white pages. Which is why there's no reason to be publishing again where people are at. If people are interested, they can look it up. You're encouraging them to go to other people's homes and harass them when you publish it in a public forum. You are reminding people that they can go to that person's home and harass them. And that shouldn't be allowed. If people want to know addresses they can look it up. They don't need you reminding them to come to my house and harass me. Do they? And you don't need to publish it for any other reason, do you? I don't think anyone should have published your home either. The difference is I'm not a hypocrite. I don't complain about things unless I think it shouldn't happen to anyone. So stop complaining. You think it should happen. You think people should harass you. Why complain to me about it if you think it's wonderful?
It would be really nice to have a filter that spares the reader all the incendiary rhetoric. Woke, Nazi, Reich wing, etc... are thrown so often it is hard to follow. I appreciate everyone's passion but it would nice to have some decorum if possible.
How close is Twitter to keeping it's transformation on track? Maybe some objective reporting on that? Thanks!
David Wallace-Wells, writing in The New York Times today, March 18, "American Has Decided It Went Overboard on Covid-19" has these kind words to say about Bari and her crew:
"In Britain, the WhatsApp leak has been narrativized by the British press as a cartoon of feckless leadership. In the United States, the equivalent leak was the “Twitter files,” when internal company deliberations over pandemic messaging were examined by contrarian quasi-journalists deputized by Elon Musk shortly after his takeover of the company."
Quasi-journalists. Not.
I am an old man who no longer believes he can understand things from causes. Best I can do is tell myself stories about what is happening before me — stories that allow me to move and perhaps even to thrive in the complexity of my experiences. Thank God I get a lot of help with that. My bet is you do too. I appreciate your stories.
Although I nearly always reside on the side of cynicism, let's hope Elon can unwind the Twitter mess for the better.
I sincerely hope that The Free Press pursues the role of government actors in offering political issues for suppression on the Twitter platform.
We all should know and be wary of the censorial nature of government suggesting action as behind each suggestion is the sense that government agents can make life miserable for any person or organization choosing not to play along.
It is immensely distressing to see Supervisory Special Agent-in-Charge, Elvis Chan, of the San Francisco FBI office leading the Intelligence Community's activities. Given both his prominent role and his frequent interactions, it is difficult to believe that such activity lacked official sanction and coordination from the highest levels of both the FBI AND the DoJ.
These actions are, without doubt, the biggest threat to our constitutional republic, certainly in my lifetime. We now know of government actors trying to influence the outcomes of the past two presidential elections and the congressional elections of 2022. These actors need to be exposed and their activities explored in open hearings and under oath.
Additionally, the FBI and the DoJ should not be permitted to decide which questions can be asked or answered.
I have chosen to subscribe to this civic effort by the publisher, editors, and writers of The Free Press because they demonstrate a level of integrity that the mainstream media abandoned more than a decade ago. I wish them well.
As someone who is retired and has both the time and the Interest, I offer my services as a researcher to do some of the dog work of reviewing and parsing documents that might pertain to their investigations.
No, you don't have to "hack/steal" to get it. But you do generally have to either hire someone (a reporter or other researcher) and/or have the sleuthing skills to find it, either thru D&B, LexisNexis or some other (generally expensive) service. It's generally known as "doxxing". D&B is the old Dunn & Bradstreet btw.
"Fair and Balanced"
Hello Bari,
I have really enjoyed your reporting thus far on all things Twitter. And I too have read reporting on Twitter's history of "Pressing the thumb hard in favor on the left" - most of which I agree with, and why I was hopeful for Elon's new approach “If there is one information source that breaks ranks, then I think it ultimately forces others not to have the same narrative,” he said. “If even one organization competes hard for the truth, others will have to follow.”
You then followed up that hopeful idea by writing "But if the story of Old Twitter is about the biases and prejudices and power trips of the company’s former overlords, the question is what Musk will now do with the powerful tools they created?"
Great question!
To date it appears that "power trips" and "prejudices" have simply shifted from a team of ideologues to the ideas of one supremely powerful man - who is proving to misuse it already.
What am I missing here?
I should be, but am not, amazed by the obsessive coverage of Musk. For heaven's sake, he's only owned the Twitter platform for two months. Someone expects a complete transformation in that time?
And the Aha! moment over Musk's suspension of Twitter accounts? My goodness. Doxing is serious business, and ending it a Good Thing. So Musk's temporary suspension of some accounts may have been overkill? This seems to me inconsequential in the long run, and maybe even the short run, too.
I can name that tune with just 5 letters: POWER
To the victor go the spoils.
But seriously, Musk has the right to gloat for a while. It's the nature of any struggle to celebrate a victory with a victory lap. We'll just have to give him the benefit of the doubt for a while. Everything I have seen from this man has been consistent with the idea that he wants to make the world a better place. Let him celebrate his victory for a while.
This is a big deal, and a lot of us are celebrating with him. If it works, the world will be a much better place.
I suspect there are forces who oppose free speech, and the old school one-way conversation that is old school media certainly will not go down without a fight. The Pharmaceutical industry which is the primary sponsor the old school media may have things to hide, among others.
There will be attacks, and some will be vicious. I hope there is no bloodshed and I do fear for his family, because we have already seen that some of these people will stop at nothing.
Why do you hide behind a moniker? Are you ashamed of your views? Are you afraid to stand behind your words like an adult? The Biden Regime is a wicked and corrupt, who wantonly trample on my basic, fundamental civil rights, while useless idiots, like you, cheer for the dictators, believing you are immune to the evils of a corrupt and wicked government.
History proves you are the fool.
I usually don't dialogue with anonymous cowards because they never engage, they only want to fight, while adding nothing to the discussion but Democratic Party talking points - you are boring.
If Bari Weiss were truly interested in bridging the political/ideological divide she'd interview former President Donald Trump rather than cheering for her tribe. Besides the American people, the biggest victim of official government censorship and corruption is Trump. Trump did not collude with Russia, but was right about being spied on by the FBI (Democrat Party owned and operated). For getting elected, and promising to drain the swamp, the IC, King of the Swamp Creatures, ramped up their campaign to weaponize law enforcement and use the powers of government against a political rival - disgusting.
Trump got a lot more right than wrong. Trump's lies were about crowd size, hand size, and other innocuous, but annoying petty lies. While Democrats lie about all things, big, small, inconsequential, some very consequential, and others are a matter of life and death.
Trump was right about the border, Trump was right about China. Trump was right about energy and trade policies, and Trump was right about the Chinese Virus, the lockdowns, mandatory jabs, school shutdowns, and mandatory masking.
Democrat/Leftists should be ashamed for allowing themselves to be manipulated by corrupt Democratic Party activists in the media into believing the very worst about half of the American population.
Bari, you continue to disappoint those of us who came to your defense when the foreign owned and anti-American NYT fired you. Interview President Trump, he's confident enough to sit with you and answer your questions - it would be a great opportunity to give you, and your audience, a chance at redemption for believing all of their lies.
Ochs-Sulzberger, Bezos, Murdoch, Redstone, seems like the concentrated ownership of news entities is well established. What causes you distress about twitter? Why is it different from these other institutions? True, Musk likes to be out front but one could argue quite easily that adds to the transparency.
No, I didn't read your threads before because I wasn't on this forum when January 6th stuff was happening. And that gets reported on a lot. What doesn't get reported on is that this has been happening on the other side for ages. The Reed college incident was a long time ago. I understand there are white pages. Which is why there's no reason to be publishing again where people are at. If people are interested, they can look it up. You're encouraging them to go to other people's homes and harass them when you publish it in a public forum. You are reminding people that they can go to that person's home and harass them. And that shouldn't be allowed. If people want to know addresses they can look it up. They don't need you reminding them to come to my house and harass me. Do they? And you don't need to publish it for any other reason, do you? I don't think anyone should have published your home either. The difference is I'm not a hypocrite. I don't complain about things unless I think it shouldn't happen to anyone. So stop complaining. You think it should happen. You think people should harass you. Why complain to me about it if you think it's wonderful?