Elon Musk keeps getting into hot water with mainstream media attacks following the intense lies that Media Matters threw at him. It started with his reply on Twitter/X to a post pointing out the ironies of modern immigrants hating those supporting unfettered access to the United States and Europe. The post led to dozens of advertisers dropping X, with Disney being the most notable among them.
The New York Times is having its annual DealBook summit, bringing Disney’s CEO Bob Iger and Elon Musk to the event to speak. Iger talked about Disney’s recent box office failures, implying that he agreed with many critics who cite Disney’s push for a woke agenda as part of the problem. Musk, by contrast, has consistently fought against woke authoritarianism since he took over Twitter, and allowing free speech seems to be what Disney finds too offensive to allow advertising on the platform.
Related: CEO Bob Iger Admits That Woke Is Killing Disney
Advertisers have been increasingly censorious in their content over the last year, which has hurt news websites like PJ Media as they claim they’re dropping advertising from “political content.” In reality, they are often pushing back and trying to suppress conservative or right-leaning messaging.
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Much of what drives an ad partner to end ad buys and placements are certain buzzwords they look for in headlines and articles. Some of these buzzwords are innocuous, such as “woke,” “feminism,” and “leftist,” making it challenging to discuss many topics pertinent to news readers and yet keep ad partners happy.
X has faced this criticism as people have been allowed more free speech on the platform since Musk took charge. The company has had a crisis in its advertising, and even though X is not publicly traded, Musk gave a bonus to employees of stock grants this October at $45 per share, which values the company at $19 billion. This is less than half of what Musk purchased the company for a year prior.
At the summit, however, Musk restated his commitment to free speech and painted ad buyers as political bullies. He specifically targeted Bob Iger and Disney, saying, “If someone is going to try and blackmail me with advertising? Blackmail me with money? Go f*** yourself. Go f*** yourself. Is that clear? Hey Bob, if you’re in the audience. That’s how I feel, don’t advertise.”
Since Bob Iger gave his own talk at the summit, he might have been in the crowd listening to Elon and heard the insult directly.
It does appear as if there is a political operation at play targeting Musk and X. Whether Disney is just an unknowing casualty of bad actors going hard on the social media platform, or if it is in a conspiracy to bring down Musk and X’s free speech policies, we will see as Musk’s defamation lawsuit against Media Matters ensues.
Related: Elon Musk Takes on Media Matters
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