Talk about a hair-on-fire reaction. During her show on Thursday, MSNBC host Katy Tur was frantic in her warning against allowing Elon Musk to purchase Twitter. Her shrill declarations ranged from claiming he was going to charge for access to “real and devastating” plus “life and globe-altering consequences” if Musk obtained the site and allowed free speech to flourish.
Without evidence, Tur began the segment by suggesting if Musk “gets his way” he was going to make Twitter a pay-to-access service. “Will you soon have to pay to use Twitter? If Elon Musk gets his way, maybe. He’s trying to buy the platform,” she declared.
And despite announcing “here’s what he said about it just moments ago,” the soundbite she played had nothing about a subscription model or anything that would indicate Musk would charge to use Twitter:
Twitter has become effectually the de facto town square. So – It's really important that people have both the reality and the perception that they're able to speak freely, within the bounds of the law, and so one of the things I believe Twitter should do is open source the algorithm.
Tur spoke with New York Times contributor Kara Swisher who claimed the richest man in the world couldn’t “afford” to buy Twitter. “I think he's much more serious than that but I am not sure he can afford it, even though he said it onstage. I don’t think he can. He puts his other companies at great risk,” she said.
At one point, Tur let it be known that one of her “big” concerns “as a member of the media” was Musk allowing “somebody like Donald Trump back on the platform[.]”
Swisher noted that Musk had objected to Trump’s ban at the time but suggested Musk wouldn’t be able to live up to his free speech idealism once he realized what it took to run a social media company:
You know, he sort of dabbles in this area and talks about free speech, but he has never run a social media platform, which is like descending into a potential cesspool. So, I think he would find it quite a bit harder running it to figure out what should be done and what should not. It's easier to sort of make, you know, make a lot of observations from the sidelines and he's good the that. I think running it is another story.
“It's so tricky, Kara, because there are real and devastating consequences for using that platform to lie,” Tur lamented, hinting that there would be more if Musk took control. “But there are massive life and globe-altering consequences for just letting people run wild on the thing.”
Ironically, Twitter is the site that carried out a Soviet-style crackdown on the totally legitimate Hunter Biden laptop story.
At the end of the segment, Tur noted that Musk also hinted at a “plan B” if the board rejected his offer and Swisher said he sounded like a “supervillain” or a “hero” like Tony Stark from Marvel.
This hair-in-fire fearmongering was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships form Applebee’s and UPS. Their contact information is linked.
the transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
MSNBC’s Katy Tur Reports
April 14, 2022
2:17:24 p.m. EasternKATY TUR: Will you soon have to pay to use Twitter? If Elon Musk gets his way, maybe. He’s trying to buy the platform. And here’s what he said about it just moments ago at the tech conference in Vancouver.
[Cuts to video]
ELON MUSK: Twitter has become effectually the de facto town square. So – It's really important that people have both the reality and the perception that they're able to speak freely, within the bounds of the law, and so one of the things I believe Twitter should do is open source the algorithm.
[Cuts back to live]
TUR: Musk is offering a premium for Twitter $54.20-a-share. Right now Twitter stock costs about $46. He's also talking a little trash. In a letter to Twitter's chairman saying he doesn't have confidence in the current management structure and that he, Elon Musk, can, quote, “unlock it's potential.”
(…)
2:19:12 p.m. Eastern
KARA SWISHER: I think a lot of Wall Street right now doesn't think he's serious, because the stock has not risen at all. They think he’s doing some sort of way to get out of the stock, and that’s what it looks like from Wall Street’s perspective. I think he's much more serious than that but I am not sure he can afford it, even though he said it onstage. I don’t think he can. He puts his other companies at great risk.
TUR: If he was able to afford it and if the shareholders were to take him up on the offer, what would it mean for the platform? And when he’s asked whether he's a free speech absolutist, and he says yes, I guess, what does that mean? And one of the big questions I have as a member of the media is would he let somebody like Donald Trump back on the platform?
SWISHER: Oh yeah, he objected to it at the time. As you recall when Twitter knocked him off, Jack Dorsey made that decision, Elon thought that wasn’t correct. He tweeted about it several times, I think. But at least once that he thought it was the wrong thing.
You know, he sort of dabbles in this area and talks about free speech, but he has never run a social media platform, which is like descending into a potential cesspool. So, I think he would find it quite a bit harder running it to figure out what should be done and what should not. It's easier to sort of make, you know, make a lot of observations from the sidelines and he's good the that. I think running it is another story.
One of the things that’s most interesting is that this company is not a big company and not a good business, and I think he's right that the potential needs to be unlocked and it has more value over the course of its history.
(…)
2:23:08 p.m. Eastern
TUR: It's so tricky, Kara, because there are real and devastating consequences for using that platform to lie. And we’ve seen it happen. I wonder -- you know, in talking about this, it's kind of funny, Elon Musk wants to buy it, but there are --
SWISHER: I get it --
TUR: -- But there are massive life and globe-altering consequences for just letting people run wild on the thing.
SWISHER: Yes, 100 percent. But Facebook is where the real action in that. So, this is a very small company. It has an outsized influence, because media people like it, politicians and world leaders, and Elon Musk.
(…)
TUR: He was asked if this was a plan B, and he laughed and said there is. We’ll find out what that is.
SWISHER: That's what a supervillain, hero would say. Right?
