PBS Joins NPR, Becomes Second Major News Org To Stop Using Twitter Over Musk Label

Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) said they have stopped posting content on their official Twitter account, becoming the second major news outlet — after National Public Radio (NPR) — to ditch the popular social media platform.


This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1454929

Ah Musk: it’s tough being a spoiled, rich apartheid brat and malignant narcissist; you just can’t get enough respect.

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No serious news outlet should still be on Twitter, Titter, the DogeCoin Social Media Site, or whatever Apartheid-baby wants to call it this week.

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I’m glad to see they’ve joined me in renouncing Twitter. :slightly_smiling_face:

But really, reinstating Trump wasn’t enough of a reason?

As an aside, Musk almost seems to take pleasure in trashing the $40 billion toy he bought himself.

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AND I’m sure the Republicans will now be screeching ‘DEFUND PBS’ for not ‘allowing free speech’…or some such BS.

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Musk forgot the business strategy of “Buy Low, Sell High” and succumbed to his grandiose ego. It happens to the best (and worst) of them…

Musk’s reason for buying Twitter is to break it so that liberals can’t use it to organize and rally against the GOP and the wealthy. I have elaborated elsewhere.

This is all perfectly satisfactory to him, and to his pals in the GOP.

Musk would prefer to turn Twitter into a mirror of TruthSocial, but failing that, a smouldering crater will do.

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“Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful.”
Elon Musk Kelly LeBrock, hawking Pantene shampoo

If I grossly overpaid for an app and then ran off all of its users, who were in fact the sole content providers, would you still think I was smart?

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Personally, Musk is just nuts. But that works to the advantage of his pals in the GOP and other entities.

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In a recent interview, Musk said he’s open to selling Twitter. My dream is that an organization such as NPR or PBS could purchase Twitter and it could become a publicly-funded corporate entity, established for the common good. Many of the problems Twitter has experienced with disinformation might be solved that way.

Well, yeah, but who is playing who?

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Later, after an interview with BBC, Musk changed BBC’s label to “publicly funded media.”

I’d like for him to explain that.

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They need the funds

He talked a big game and it forced him into buying.

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Yeah - they don’t have that kind of money and that’s not anywhere close to their mission. Most likely scenario IMO is a number for former and possibly current Twitter employees find the investors to create another version that simply doesn’t have an Elon Musk.

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Yeah, that’s why I said it was a “dream,” but perhaps someone could come up with a brilliant strategy to accomplish it.

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Exactly, twittah isn’t going to be nationalized or snatched under CIFUS.

People who enjoy ‘fires’, should get ready for what comes next.

Nope.

Next 1 up (if there’s 1) will probably be crazier than Musk.

They could change Twitter’s mission (“a public conversation about events of the day”, perhaps? …or "the digital commons"?). If Twitter remains in private hands there’s always the danger that the same problem (e.g. a sale to a megalomaniacal person, Wild West approach to increase revenue) could crop up again. Musk isn’t the only problem. The need for revenue inevitably creates a situation where bad behavior is allowed. …and that can devolve into a security threat or at minimum, a serious threat to democracy.

Given Musk’s whining, it’s clear he regrets the purchase. What if there were a group of wealthy (sane) investors who put together an amount sufficient to purchase Twitter and then turned it over to PBS or NPR, or some government entity who could create a public-corporation version, created for the common good?

Now if we could just get Josh off of there…

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