On Friday night, the leftist tears flowed like the waters of Niagara Falls. After Elon Musk, through independent journalist Matt Taibbi, dropped what will be the first chapter in the “Twitter Files,” high-profile progressives and members of the activist media made valiant efforts to spin the details of the effort to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story on the platform just before the 2020 election into something resembling a nothingburger.
In a lengthy Twitter thread, Taibbi detailed a behind-the-scenes look at what went into the decision to suppress the New York Post story reporting on the scandal. The information wasn’t anything new – the fact that Twitter suppressed the story was common knowledge.
However, the motivation behind doing so was murkier, and Musk blew the top off the whole affair, which only vindicated conservatives who rightly pointed out that the employees’ motivation had nothing to do with “hacked materials” but was a politically motivated endeavor.
Twitter is still abuzz with leftists pretending Taibbi’s thread was nothing to freak out about as they continued to freak out about it. In fact, many of these alleged “journalists” attacked him for agreeing to disseminate the information. MSNBC media activist Mehdi Hasan posted a tweet excoriating Taibbi for doing “PR work” for Musk:
Imagine volunteering to do online PR work for the world’s richest man on a Friday night, in service of nakedly and cynically right-wing narratives, and then pretending you’re speaking truth to power.
Imagine volunteering to do online PR work for the world's richest man on a Friday night, in service of nakedly and cynically right-wing narratives, and then pretending you're speaking truth to power.
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) December 3, 2022
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA), who can always be counted on for a silly take, responded to a tweet from Musk, noting that this is a situation in which the government tried to crack down on speech:
Dear @elonmusk: I’m in the government and I order you to stop posting stupid shit.
See why your post is wrong? Twitter can do whatever it wants as a private sector company when it comes to speech. And the Biden campaign team wasn’t the government. Trump was President in 2020.
Dear @elonmusk: I’m in the government and I order you to stop posting stupid shit.
See why your post is wrong? Twitter can do whatever it wants as a private sector company when it comes to speech. And the Biden campaign team wasn’t the government. Trump was President in 2020. https://t.co/FZ64sPQdjH
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) December 3, 2022
Of course, Lieu deliberately misses the point. The thread points out that Democrats in the government encouraged Twitter to suppress the story even if they weren’t Joe Biden himself.
Wajahat Ali, a media activist and New York Times columnist, was especially triggered by the revelations, accusing Taibbi of selling his soul “for the richest white nationalist on Earth.” He wrote:
Matt Taibbi…what sad, disgraceful downfall. I swear, kids, he did good work back in the day. Should be a cautionary tale for everyone. Selling your soul for the richest white nationalist on Earth. Well, he’ll eat well for the rest of his life I guess. But is it worth it?
Matt Taibbi…what sad, disgraceful downfall. I swear, kids, he did good work back in the day. Should be a cautionary tale for everyone. Selling your soul for the richest white nationalist on Earth. Well, he'll eat well for the rest of his life I guess. But is it worth it?
— Wajahat Ali (@WajahatAli) December 2, 2022
In response to a tweet posted by Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, Condé Nast’s legal affairs editor claimed Musk bought Twitter because he “wants to own what you believe.” He tweeted:
Elon wants to own what you believe.
That’s what he paid $44 billion for
And that’s a problem of infinite complexity and danger no one can necessarily stop—and also specifically why his sympathy for white nationalists/supremacists like trump is a problem and threat to the world.
Elon wants to own what you believe.
That’s what he paid $44 billion for
And that’s a problem of infinite complexity and danger no one can necessarily stop—and also specifically why his sympathy for white nationalists/supremacists like trump is a problem and threat to the world.— Luke Zaleski (@ZaleskiLuke) December 3, 2022
Leftist activist Max Berger also chimed in, slamming Taibbi for helping Musk “spread right-wing talking points.” He wrote:
I’m old enough to remember when this guy considered himself the scourge of billionaires. He met with us at Occupy Wall Street to discuss digging up dirt on elite bankers. Now, he’s helping the richest man in the world spread right-wing talking points.
Sad!
I'm old enough to remember when this guy considered himself the scourge of billionaires. He met with us at Occupy Wall Street to discuss digging up dirt on elite bankers. Now, he's helping the richest man in the world spread right-wing talking points.
— Max Berger (@maxberger) December 2, 2022
As usual, this is only a small sampling of leftists having a collective conniption because Twitter is changing in a way that does not favor their agenda. But this certainly will not be the end – Taibbi and Musk have both indicated that there will be even more revelations to come.
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