An editor for one of the most powerful liberal media outlets in the world is having a breakdown over the world’s richest man completing his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter.
Reuters U.S. Editor Lauren Silva Laughlin mourned that Twitter, “its employees, its new owners, its creditors and the rest of the world are probably worse off” now that Tesla CEO Elon Musk is Chief Twit. One of her core complaints was that Musk won’t be as zealous to silence free speech on Twitter as his notorious predecessors were.
“[I]f Musk reinstates divisive tweeters like former U.S. President Donald Trump and fails to crack down on misinformation, the rest of the world will feel the consequences,” Laughlin wrote. More free speech? Oh the horror!
But this ridiculous conniption should come as no surprise for the same outlet that once spent column space fact-checking a clearly altered video showing President Joe Biden mindlessly following an ice-cream truck during a speech made by his wife Jill.
More than 1 billion people worldwide reportedly see Reuters’s coverage, which means Laughlin’s Armageddon doom-mongering about a Musk-owned Twitter and its effect on the "world" could easily reach hundreds of millions of readers, if not more.
Laughlin proceeded to rail against Musk’s apparent strategy to shift the platform from its woke activist capitalism in favor of a more shareholder-driven business model. “The company’s many stakeholders are left holding the bag,” Laughlin claimed. “Musk has admitted he overpaid. He could still cause trouble for the board depending on what he discovers when he opens Twitter’s books. Banks who agreed to lend the entrepreneur $13 billion before credit markets dried up face hefty losses. The only way for Musk and his co-investors to salvage their investment is to slash costs, including long-suffering employees.”
Oh, it would just be terrible if Musk focused more on profits than catering to never-ending, woke leftist screeching, right Laughlin? Strive Asset Management Executive Chairman Vivek Ramaswamy wrote in his 2022 book Woke, Inc. that “[u]nder the banner of ‘stakeholder capitalism,’ CEOs and large investors work with ideological activists to implement radical agendas that they could never pass in Congress.”
Musk reportedly is set to lay off 75 percent of the Twitter workforce. He also fired former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, Twitter Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and Twitter Chief Legal Counsel Vijaya Gadde from their positions. Agrawal stated in November 2020 that Twitter’s stakeholder-focused role was “not to be bound by the First Amendment” but to decide “who can be heard.” In a letter to Twitter’s advertisers, Musk said his free speech vision was for Twitter to be a “common digital town square,” essentially flushing Agrawal’s censorship-obsessed business model down the toilet.
But Laughlin harrumphed that “[i]f capitalism is about maximising value for the almighty shareholder, regardless of the consequences for other stakeholders, the Twitter saga upholds that primacy.”
She continued: “It’s a victory of sorts, but not one that leaves feelings of encouragement.”
Conservatives are under attack. Contact Reuters and demand it stop pushing censorship on social media platforms.
