Legacy media journalists showed their true colors in the aftermath of suspensions handed down last Thursday by Twitter CEO Elon Musk over their “doxxing” of his family.
After the vehicle carrying Musk’s son was accosted by an apparent left-wing activist, the billionaire drew the line over revelations of his real-time location. The so-called reporters were handed brief suspensions in compliance with platform rules, and the outcry was predictable.
What was not so predictable were responses from conservatives.
National Review editor Philip Klein lamented that Musk was being “hypocritical” in a similar way as the journalists who complained of “arbitrary Twitter suspensions.”
The Manhattan Institute’s Chris Rufo defended the doxxing prohibition and 7-day suspensions but assailed the platform’s enforcement as a “changing standard.”
Notable conservatives including Ben Shapiro and Bari Weiss also took Musk to task for temporarily sweeping the offenders from Twitter. Unfortunately, they missed the point by trying to take a “balanced” view of the situation.
Elon Musk is not denying "journalists" free speech. He's punishing activists for cyber-stalking and posting the locations of people they don't like. I have no problem with it. I actually support it. And I believe in free speech.
— Jason Whitlock (@WhitlockJason) December 16, 2022
This is something that the left never feels obligated to do. Liberals, especially since former President Donald Trump’s 2016 election, use institutions they control to tear apart the conservative opposition limb from limb and silence their voices.
Twitter is a perfect example.
It was business as usual for years to suppress conservative voices along with information damaging to the left’s agenda. Nothing was sacred, and nothing was beyond the pale. If the Hunter Biden laptop story was damaging to Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign, it must be stopped.
Information in the virtual town square showing that experts questioned Washington’s foolhardy rush to close the nation due to COVID-19 had to be suppressed.
Shadow-banning and deplatforming became the order of the day, and conservatives simply had to live with it. But that is no longer the case with Musk’s acquisition of Twitter. The banned journalists’ accounts ran afoul of company rules, and those rules are no longer arbitrary.
There is no need to be timid when the left is so clear in its scorched-Earth policies. Every concession by the right is immediately met with a new demand that must be followed to the letter. Witness drag queen story hours and transitioning 10-year-olds.
Musk’s leveling of the online playing field should be celebrated, not apologized for. If conservatives have any chance to succeed, they must abandon the presumption of “balance” and “seeing both sides” once and for all.
