Via Fox News: Elon Musk promotes free speech at Twitter all-hands meeting, says the media ‘almost never’ gets it right
“I think it’s essential to have free speech and … be able to communicate freely,” Musk said in an edited video of his remarks released by Project Veritas. “If there are multiple opinions … just make sure that we’re not sort of driving a narrative.”
Side note, notice how Project Veritas videos are always described as “edited”, as if they didn’t edit this article and everything else they present. That’s what they are suppose to do, in order to reduce it to the point where people will actually read, watch or listen. The difference is that Project Veritas will always release the rest of the uncut footage.
Elon Musk is rapidly becoming a hero to me, in his fight for absolute free speech. I do know that my heroes have warts and that just because somebody is doing good in one field it doesn’t mean they aren’t my opponent in another area.
“How many times had the media gotten it right? I would say almost never,” Musk said. “Not never, but almost never.”
And here is the wart:
The billionaire then stressed the difference between “freedom of speech” and “freedom of reach,” suggesting that he is open to allowing “outrageous things” to be said on the platform that “doesn’t get amplified” and get “a ton of reach.”
If they are allowed to put a cone of silence around speech they dislike then it is still a form of silencing offending voices.
And note that Fox News has “edited” Elon’s statement to pull out two and three word quotes and strung them together with their own words. What did Elon actually say?
The two-to-three word quoted phrases strung together by the article author’s words is always suspicious to me.
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It’s not hard to imagine an article — say, by someone in Everytown, Moms Demand, or Giffords — containing the sentence, “The Second Amendment grants that ‘the right’ of the organized militia to ‘keep and bear Arms’ is allowed to ‘be infringed.'”
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Completely accurate pulled phrases, which nevertheless completely distorts, and even reverses, what the whole of the Second Amendment actually says.
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Pro-tip to article writers: Context is just as important as the specific words. Quote complete sentences whenever possible. It’s not that hard.
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In fact, it’s harder to distort the meaning than it is to keep it intact. Which makes me wonder, why choose to do it? Thus, my suspicion when I see several two-to-four-word phrases strung together in a sentence.
The problem with any of the social media platforms monitoring and controlling what is posted on their sites is it invariably turns into an attempt to shape a narrative. It starts out with the moderator removing comments because the person posting them is “being a dick.” And, it ends up with the platform banning anyone who likes pineapple on pizza. (OK, understandable, but it is an example….)
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Then again, when you have zero moderation, you end up with A-holes destroying the platform for everyone who just wants to discuss today’s issues.
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Frankly, if none of the social media platforms existed, the world would probably be a much nicer place.