As we told you, NBC News’ “dystopia beat” senior reporter Ben Collins is very, very worried about what’s going to happen to Twitter if Elon Musk’s takeover ends up going through. Musk is poised to blow up all the guardrails that are preserving Twitter’s integrity, you guys! Don’t you care?!
If Musk is really taking this site private, there are no real guardrails anymore. Rulemaking can be capricious.
He can elevate any idea or person he wants through recommendations and UX choices and there will be no oversight on this as a private company.
— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) October 4, 2022
What Ben really fears, of course, is that on Elon Musk’s watch, it won’t be so easy for liberals to get conservative or Republican or right-wing accounts suspended or permanently banned. Democratic and left-wing Twitter accounts have largely enjoyed relative immunity from the Twitter Thought Police, but Musk could totally screw all that up.
We see right through Ben’s self-righteous fearmongering and faux integrity, and so does Glenn Greenwald. Greenwald not only called out Collins in a thread, but he brought a whole bunch of receipts with him:
This person bizarrely doesn't realize he is an employee of one of the largest media corporations in the world — the Comcast Corp., with NBC News as one of its units — and they, too, "capriciously" promote whatever lies and disinformation they want with "no real guardrails." https://t.co/XkuVoo6Yku
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) October 4, 2022
Here, for instance, is the type of deranged but dangerous conspiratorial bullshit that Ben Collins' corporate employer routinely broadcasts "with no real guardrails" and "no oversight on this as a private company" (FCC rules are a joke):pic.twitter.com/8AZMpdD8ZR
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) October 4, 2022
And here's Collins' corporate employer, NBC News, broadcasting one of Collins' corporate colleagues — former CIA Director John Brennan — lying to liberals by telling them Mueller was coming to arrest the Trump family for colluding with Russia:pic.twitter.com/nPlaq5YVxf
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) October 4, 2022
Here's a completely fabricated and laughably stupid conspiracy theory from Ben Collins' corporate employer, NBC News, claiming that Russia was going to hand over Edward Snowden to the US as a "gift" to Trump:pic.twitter.com/M7y6Hw0inX
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) October 4, 2022
Then we have Collins' corporate masters, NBC News, owned by the Comcast Corp., spreading the complete lie that Russia paid "bounties" for the heads of US soldiers in Afghanistan and that Trump did nothing about it because he's captive to the Kremlin:pic.twitter.com/FcNtf34F1K
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) October 4, 2022
And here we have Collins' corporate colleague, Joe Scarborough, joining with Nancy Pelosi to spread the absolutely batshit insane conspiracy theory that Putin controlled Trump through blackmail: even as Trump armed Ukraine and waged war on Nord Stream 2:
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) October 4, 2022
Then we have the fact that one of Collins' colleagues — NBC's @JoyAnnReid — got caught blatantly lying when she fabricated a deranged tale about how a time-traveling hacker wrote her bigoted blog posts. Then NBC *promoted* her. Even CNN was horrified:pic.twitter.com/AaScBP6DQA
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) October 4, 2022
Anyway, I could spend all day showing blatant disinformation from Collins' corporate employer.
People like Collins aren't worried Musk can "capriciously" promote what he wants "with no guardrails."
They're only worried when this allows people to freely point out their lies.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) October 4, 2022
Ding, ding, ding.
This is why employees of the largest media corporations (eg Collins, @BrandyZadrozny, @TaylorLorenz, etc.) are the most vocal and devoted advocates for censorship, why they neurotically whine if people can have "unfettered" conversations.
That threatens their employers' control.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) October 4, 2022
No discussion of the chronic lies from Ben Collins' corporate employer, NBC News, is complete without this brilliant video by @0rf on how constantly and casually former Bush/Cheney spokesperson @NicolleDWallace lies.
"The Typhoid Mary of Disinformation"https://t.co/R5hhZNtc7S
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) October 4, 2022
Maybe, just to make a statement, Ben Collins should pre-emptively censor himself. That’d teach Elon Musk and everybody else a lesson!
Excellent (and amusing) thread. Greenwald does a great job of keeping track of media corruption and lies. https://t.co/2DGm1ilhaK
— Eiger of the Sierra (@EigerOf) October 4, 2022
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