Jim VandeHei, co-founder of news site Axios, accepted a journalism award at the National Press Club last week and was “talking about his book.” Payment terms For promoting stocks and investments in a neutral way that actually helps your own position. Recently, there has been a lot of “book talk'' in the media.
VandeHei was a “passionate and improvised champion of a free and fearless press” and “inspired and energized” his audience. writing without signature About your own media speeches. “We’re doing it because it’s important.” he saidsometimes shouts. “The work we do is important.”
vandehei I got literal applause. He was praised by the “Morning Joe” host and fellow panelists for his “passionate defense” of his profession during an appearance Monday. “News pundits feel more empowered than ever,” host Joe Scarborough said.
It's not far-fetched to think that Mr. Scarborough was thinking more of one billionaire media critic than anyone else when he praised Mr. VandeHei. The target of the criticism is the owner of X. “First buddy” Elon Musk. The MSNBC morning show host's rant comes amid a bit of trolling over Musk's potential purchase of the very network that Scarborough currently appears on five mornings a week. It's in progress.
It started as a joke by Donald Trump Jr. after it was reported that MSNBC would be one of many cable networks to be spun off from Comcast's core assets as a separate company. It has since become meme material for Musk, poking fun at his interest in running a liberal cable channel that boasts talent like Rachel Maddow.
This story is now in the news like CNN Media correspondent Brian Stelter reported this week that Musk's interest is “increasing the anxiety MSNBC staffers feel about Donald Trump's re-election.”
Mr. Stelter also reported that other “benevolent” billionaires (different from the clearly fearsome Mr. Musk) have also inquired about purchasing the bankrupt media property. And more importantly, MSNBC is not for sale at all, just part of a cable bundle company. It is a “tax-free spin-off” from the main property.
But in reality, Musk never intended to buy MSNBC in the first place. The network is a dinosaur of traditional news, perhaps only an era older than fossils like CBS News and ABC News, but they are hardly related.
Mr. Musk has broad interests in the media and freedom of speech. He has been enjoying his toy, social media site X. But owning a cable news channel was also for the fun of replacing Scarborough or Maddow with a news channel. Shiba Inu ”Doge “Dog” — It wouldn't be a smart business move, nor would it be a particularly fun endeavor.
But Musk has also been “talking about his book” lately. In the minutes after Trump's victory, Musk Posted in X —probably uttered literally from Trump's side at Mar-a-Lago all night—the phrase that sent the establishment press into hysterics: “You are the media.”
According to analysis by X, the post was viewed more than 106 million times and struck a nerve with journalists who work in the media for a living.
From within the bubble, Acela's media missed the Trump wave again in 2024, just as it did in 2016. They tried to make Vice President Kamala Harris happen. like fetchthat wasn't happening.
But their failure does not make the random poster of X “media.” And Mr. Musk should be happy that his platform doesn't represent “the media.” Because this is the central conceit of government. Article 230 This is based on the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which protects social media companies by defining X, Facebook, and YouTube as “platforms” rather than publishers.
This exempts these companies from any legal consequences for content posted by users of the site. If the number of people posting on .
At the same time, trust in the news media is at an all-time low. Why do you want to become a “media” anyway? And that's all the more reason not to rebuild a dying media brand on a platform that is losing customers week after week: linear television.
There is growing agitation across the media over words uttered by Musk and the Trump team regarding Fourth Estate norms and institutions. trump jr. made fun of it Discussions are underway about letting more independent news organizations into the White House briefing room, perhaps by pushing out some of the less friendly traditional news organizations. Let's see if this rather unrelated realignment actually happens.
In the meantime, Mr. Musk will continue to poke at the bears in the establishment media, and the bears will react with predictable hysteria, but it will all be a performance. This is yet another evidence in the list of reasons why the public is losing trust in the narcissistic clowns at the helm of an industry that is becoming less relevant and influential by the day. .
NewsNation contributor Steve Krakauer is the author of “Uncovered: How the Media Get Cozy with Power, Abandoned Its Principles, and Lost the People” and editor and host of the Fourth Watch newsletter and podcast.
