Even before Tesla CEO Elon Musk took over Twitter back in October, we were being treated to virtue signals galore from The Usual Suspects on and left and in the media (but I repeat myself) on how they would be leaving the social media platform for supposedly greener pastures when and if his takeover became official.
Well, it did indeed become official and in the aftermath, the running began to Mastodon – where things quickly (and hilariously) devolved into a Mean Girls club for easily-triggered media figures.
But in the midst of all the threats to leave due to journalists purportedly feeling “unsafe” because Musk has made transparency and open dialogue his top priorities, a few brave souls in the media remain – and one of them in particular posted a simple yet on-point message Sunday that surprised many including yours truly considering the reporter’s notorious history.
Brian Karem, who is probably one of the most obnoxious if not the most obnoxious “reporters” in the media, took to the Twitter machine where he announced that, unlike some others who couldn’t deal with Musk’s presence, he was not cutting and running – and that he would stay there and not “spare Elon Musk the just criticism he deserves”:
I won't be chased from Twitter.
And I won't spare @elonmusk the just criticism he deserves.— Brian J. Karem (@BrianKarem) December 11, 2022
Though Karem , who has written for Playboy magazine and has occasionally been a CNN analyst, is undoubtedly an attention-seeking “reporter” (but then again, which ones of them aren’t that way to varying degrees?) who goes out of his way to make an absolute spectacle out of himself, he made an important point with his tweet.
If you’re a true journalist and you care about holding public figures accountable no matter which side of the aisle you’re on, you’re not going to rush for the exits when one comes onto the scene who challenges your worldview. You’re going to stick around, raise questions, level criticism where you feel it is warranted, and keep on keeping on regardless of what that person may think of you and regardless of your personal thoughts about that person.
All too often these days, pseudo-journalists forget what their actual roles are in questioning those in position of power and/or authority, with some unbelievably now suggesting on one hand that powerful people like Elon Musk deserve to be investigated by the government while on the other hand have also said public figures they agree with (like former Twitter general counsel, ex-FBI official Jim Baker) should be shielded from press scrutiny because criticizing them could allegedly put them in harm’s way or something.
That’s not the way journalism is supposed to work like at all, and it doesn’t take a journalism major to be able to figure that inconvenient truth out.
It’s sad that we’re at the point in modern journalism where an absolute clown like Brian Karem should be considered the voice of reason, and yet here we are.
As they say, a broken clock is right twice a day, and incredibly, Karem definitely got this one right.
Related: New York Times Amplifies Dangerous New Speech Suppression Tactic in Information Wars
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