During Monday’s Reliable Sources Daily on CNN+, host and media janitor Brian Stelter praised the Twitter board for putting a “poison pill” in place to temporarily slow down billionaire Elon Musk’s bid to buy the company in a hostile takeover. Despite other market actions, he and New York Times business reporter Lauren Hirsch suggested investors loved the move, adding that if Musk implemented policies more respectful of free speech, it would turn Twitter into a “gutter.”
At one point in their conversation, Stelter was fascinated by Hirsch’s recent piece where she questioned: “What is an ‘uncensored’ Twitter worth?” Elaborating, she said the folks at Twitter support free speech crackdowns because they “would argue … improvements to moderation helped user engagement helped revenue. So, from just a pure financial perspective, moderation has been good for business.”
Stelter vehemently agreed and began shouting about how “people don’t play in the gutter! Most people don’t want to send their kids to play in the gutter!”
He even defended arbitrary bans as something that just needed to be done for the greater good:
And I think if you’re a random user that gets suspended for no good reason, you feel that and that’s a big deal and that’s a big problem. But the argument to make Twitter more chaotic would seem to be a losing argument from an investor point of view.
What Stelter came down in support of was the kind of Soviet-style crackdown and purge that Twitter carried out in an attempt to suppress the damaging Hunter Biden laptop story and help Joe Biden win the 2020 election. Hunter’s the one playing around in the gutter and the media don’t want you to see.
At the top of the show, Stelter praised “the Twitter board adopting a so-called ‘poison pill’ provision trying to drive Musk back from his hostile takeover bid.” And despite this praise, Stelter scoffed at Musk responding to a tweet suggesting “his bid would only be rejected if the system is rigged.”
Stelter wrote off the criticism as Musk “trolling” and acting “very Trumpian.”
Since Musk first announced he bought over nine percent of Twitter, the price of the stock has continued to increase as other smaller investors followed suit. But according to Stelter and Hirsch, the Monday rise was a sign that investors approved of the poison pill:
STELTER: Twitter stock up and down. What do we know as this new trading week begins?
HIRSCH: Well, Twitter stock is up. They put the poison pill, as you mentioned, on Friday. That was a stock market holiday so the market was closed. So this is the first time we’re seeing investors’ reactions to the pill. And they seem to like it, which indicates they’re not necessarily in Elon Musk’s camp.
STELTER: So, what you’re saying is this investor action would suggest it’s getting even harder for Musk?
HIRSCH: Absolutely.
To them, that was the cause and they refused to entertain any other possible factor.
Just, for example, someone might invest with the idea that if Musk does buy the company they’ll get a nice return over what they spent. Or perhaps someone is buying shares now in the event the poison pill is used and they can buy future stocks at a discounted price. In these cases, they’re following financial incentives.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CNN+’s Reliable Sources Daily
April 18, 2022
11:01:39 a.m. EasternBRIAN STELTER: What is the next move going to be for Elon Musk? All eyes are on Musk and his Twitter account right now because he is pushing forward with this $41 billion-plus bid for Twitter.
Over the weekend the Twitter board adopting a so-called “poison pill” provision trying to drive Musk back from his hostile takeover bid. The poison pill will essentially release more shares at a cheaper price to other shareholders. That would make a takeover a lot less desirable for Musk since his stake would be diluted.
The tech titan spent a lot of the weekend trolling Twitter right on Twitter! In one case, amplifying a suggestion his bid would only be rejected if the system is rigged. We’ve seen that kind of rhetoric before. It’s very Trumpian. There’s been plenty of that on Twitter in the past few years.
(…)
11:02:32 a.m. Eastern
STELTER: Twitter stock up and down. What do we know as this new trading week begins?
LAUREN HIRSCH: Well, Twitter stock is up. They put the poison pill, as you mentioned, on Friday. That was a stock market holiday so the market was closed. So this is the first time we’re seeing investors’ reactions to the pill. And they seem to like it, which indicates they’re not necessarily in Elon Musk’s camp.
STELTER: So, what you’re saying is this investor action would suggest it’s getting even harder for Musk?
HIRSCH: Absolutely. He was kind of taunting over the weekend that he might do what’s called a hostile bid. And in doing that you would need to go to Twitter shareholders and basically say, ‘the board is not doing the deal, come on my side and take my offer.’ Obviously, to do that you would need the support of investors. But if investors are now cheering Twitter’s defensive move, it indicates they might not so willing to do that.
(…)
11:04:54 a.m. Eastern
STELTER: I’ve got to imagine other companies or other billionaires would be interested in buying Twitter. Is that what, ultimately, this might be about?
HIRSCH: I will tell you, I’ve been the phone all morning all afternoon trying to find out. There’s a lot of noise out there. There’s –
STELTER: What do you mean there’s a lot of noise out there?
HIRSCH: A lot of speculation. And there’s always speculation and interest when these kind of situations are happening. You know, there’s a difference between interest and pen-to-paper putting through an offer. I suspect over the next couple of days that’s what myself and a lot of journalists are going to be paying a lot of attention to.
STELTER: My gut say that this is going to change Twitter. Someone’s going to end up owing Twitter in a different structure but maybe not Elon Musk.
HIRSCH: It’s very possible. And there’s been talk for years that Twitter would be better as a private company. You know, just two years ago, is had a fight with the activist investor Elliot. You know, it’s been a tough run for it.
So, maybe a private equity firm, maybe someone else that they’re potentially more amenable to will take them private and kind of get rid of these distractions.
STELTER: These distractions.
(…)
11:06:18 a.m. Eastern
HIRSCH: But if you talk to people around the company, they will say, ‘look at what happened in 2015 and 2016’ when they were resistant to moderation: users were down, revenue stagnated. They would argue what they say are improvements to moderation helped user engagement helped revenue. So, from just a pure financial perspective, moderation has been good for business.
STELTER: Right! People don’t play in the gutter! Most people don’t want to send their kids to play in the gutter! Twitter’s tried to clean it up. Still – still – still got a lot of complaints from a lot of people about how Twitter does that.
And I think if you’re a random user that gets suspended for no good reason, you feel that and that’s a big deal and that’s a big problem. But the argument to make Twitter more chaotic would seem to be a losing argument from an investor point of view.
(…)
