Newsmax Offers Surprisingly Balanced Coverage Of Musk’s Battle With ADL

Like the Media Research Center, Newsmax is turning into a bit of a PR agent for Elon Musk and defending him against criticism — but, unlike the Media Research Center, its coverage was actually somewhat balanced. Mark Swanson hyped Musk’s battle with the Anti-Defamation League over its exposure of rampant anti-Semitism on Twitter in an Sept. 4 article:

Elon Musk’s weekend tussle with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) spilled over into Monday when the owner of X — formerly known as Twitter — accused the global anti-hate activist of being the “biggest generators of anti-Semitism” on his platform.

It capped a weekend of posts from Musk that sided with an Irish white nationalist over his #BanTheADL trend. Musk also blamed the ADL for the loss of advertising revenue on X since he took it over, and suggested an anti-defamation lawsuit against the anti-defamation organization.

Ironically, Musk’s tweets all came in the aftermath of new X CEO Linda Yaccarino’s meeting with ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt on Wednesday. That meeting was about the ADL’s concern over a spike in racist, antisemitic, and homophobic content on X since Musk bought it last year for $44 billion.

Later Monday, Musk tweeted out, “To be super clear, I’m pro free speech, but against antisemitism of any kind.”

The barrage began Saturday, when Musk liked a post by YouTube influencer Keith O’Brien, who goes by Keith Woods online and once called himself a “raging antisemite,” over the trending “#BanTheADL,” which he started. O’Brien’s quest began the day after the Yaccarino-Greenblatt meeting.

“Perhaps we should run a poll on this?” Musk tweeted, adding that the ADL “has tried to very hard to strangle X/Twitter.” Musk is an avowed “free-speech absolutist.”

Then early Monday morning, Musk tweeted, “The ADL, because they are so aggressive in their demands to ban social media accounts for even minor infractions, are ironically the biggest generators of anti-Semitism on this platform!”

Newsmax also published a Sept. 5 wire article on Musk’s threat to sue the ADL. A Sept. 6 article by Nicole Wells gave space to the ADL’s response:

Anti-Defamation League (ADL) CEO Jonathan Greenblatt fired back at Elon Musk over the tech billionaire’s accusations that the organization has been “trying to kill” X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

“I can’t really tell you what’s in his head,” Greenblatt said during an interview with CNN Primetime host Abby Phillip. “I’ve read the same tweets that you have.”

[…]

Musk’s latest comments, his “frivolous lawsuit,” and his interaction with controversial figures such as white supremacist Nick Fuentes have only served to bolster “bad actors with very hateful intent,” Greenblatt said.

Wells followed that, though with a Sept. 13 article filled with Musk getting defensive:

Tech billionaire Elon Musk says the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which has called for censorship of conservatives on a variety of social media platforms, was “instrumental” in getting former President Donald Trump banned from Twitter, now known as X.

The CEO of SpaceX and Tesla purchased the social media platform in October 2022 for $44 billion after months of waffling, verbal mudslinging, and lawsuits. Trump was permanently banned from the platform in January 2021.

“The ADL was instrumental in getting Donald Trump deplatformed,” Musk told the “All-In Podcast.” “And then when we restored the account, they made it super clear that they regarded simply restoring his account … that constituted hate speech.

“He hasn’t even said anything,” he continued. “He has to at least say something, or post something, for there to be incremental hateful content. This is absurd. And what’s this got to do with antisemitism? Donald Trump’s son-in-law is Jewish; he has Jewish grandkids. I’m pretty sure he’s not antisemitic, OK? I mean, he was at their wedding.”

Wells uncritically repeated unsupported claims by Musk that, contrary to reporting by the ADL and others that anti-Semitism has increased on Twitter since he took over, there are supposedly “third parties that have all the data analyzed and said, actually, there’s less hate speech.

A Sept, 14 article by Jim Thomas noted that Musk was slated to meet with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which “marks the latest endeavor by Musk’s associates and allies to defuse a conflict with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).” He added that “Influential Jewish figures have stepped forward in an attempt to de-escalate the situation, as conveyed to the Washington Post.” That was followed by a Sept. 18 wire article on the meeting.

Newsmax also published an Oct. 4 wire article noting Musk blaming advertising declines at Twitter om the ADL that also gave space for a response that “the ADL said any allegation that it caused losses to X were false. The organization added it was prepared to begin advertising itself on the platform ‘to bring our important message on fighting hate to X and its users.'”