Elon Musk isn’t playing around.

He does not have a positive opinion of the legacy media as I’ve pointed out in the past. But he especially has a low opinion of the New York Times, and he’s made that clear in the past.

But now with the new Twitter verification system, he’s demonstrating just what pond scum he thinks they are.

Musk has changed the Twitter verification system. He announced that all legacy blue check marks would go away and that organizations would have to pay $1000 to have the checkmark, and it would be $50/month for each affiliate/employee. Part of the reason for that is his disdain for folks like the New York Times and his thought that the “legacy checkmark” didn’t mean much and that folks like the NY Times weren’t more trustworthy than other outlets.

Now, I think that’s a lot of money for smaller organizations to shell out, I think he should charge less and he could get more signing up. But certainly, one of the organizations that could front that money would be the New York Times. But they made clear that they weren’t going to do it.

“The New York Times, which has nearly 55 million followers on Twitter, said on Thursday that it would not pay for the verified badge for its institutional accounts, including @nytimes. The Times also told its journalists that it would not reimburse them for a Twitter Blue subscription, except in rare cases when it was necessary for reporting,” the article stated.

Musk had announced if they hadn’t paid by April 1, the checkmarks would start to go away. He also said that could include the NY Times if they didn’t pay for the subscription.

Then he pulled the blue checkmark for the main NY Times account. So now it looks a bit naked, its “legacy” gone.

@nytimes pic.twitter.com/FnnZo5EcdN

— Dr. Nickarama (@nickaramaOG) April 3, 2023

Musk then lit into them in his tweets.

Also, their feed is the Twitter equivalent of diarrhea. It’s unreadable.

They would have far more real followers if they only posted their top articles.

Same applies to all publications.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 2, 2023

“The real tragedy of @NYTimes is that their propaganda isn’t even interesting,” Musk tweeted. “Also, their feed is the Twitter equivalent of diarrhea. It’s unreadable,” Musk said. “They would have far more real followers if they only posted their top articles. Same applies to all publications.”

NY Times is being incredible hypocritical here, as they are super aggressive about forcing everyone to pay *their* subscription

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 2, 2023

He’s right on the mark with what propaganda they are

Musk also pointed out that they were “being incredible hypocritical here, as they are super aggressive about forcing everyone to pay *their* subscription.”

But that wasn’t all. He also conflated the Twitter Blue checkmark with the legacy account, thus making everyone the same.

NY Times is being incredible hypocritical here, as they are super aggressive about forcing everyone to pay *their* subscription

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 2, 2023

But the liberals who are all for pushing equity don’t seem to like equity when it applies to them. It’s making liberals on Twitter have a serious meltdown that anyone would think they’d pay $8 for the blue checkmark and how will people now know they are special!!

Reporter Matthew Iglesias even seems to have gone so far as to get himself unverified so he would not be mistaken for a lowly person who paid $8 for the checkmark.

This is awful. Musk has now set this up such that a person might mistakenly believe I signed up for Twitter Blue.

Is it possible to get myself de-verified so people won’t think this? pic.twitter.com/ibN5boesga

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) April 2, 2023

One can’t say that Elon doesn’t have a sense of humor.