The Media Research Center spent the 2024 election gushing over Trump surrogate Elon Musk’s election interference — something it would not have done if he was supporting a Democrat. Tim Graham devoted his Nov. 8 column to praising his interference:
There was one supervillain in the story of the 2024 campaign that almost surpassed Donald Trump – Elon Musk.
From the minute he bought Twitter in 2022, the leftists who aspire to complete messaging control were furious. They knew their 2020 jig was up, that they couldn’t just suppress damaging stories like the Hunter Biden laptop. Reporters like Cleve Wootson of The Washington Post complained in the White House briefing that “misinformation on Twitter is not just a campaign issue…it’s an America issue.” Post columnists call it a “mind-polluting app.”
Suddenly, “independent” agencies in the Biden administration unleashed their probes: the Justice Department, the Federal Trade Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission. Government was weaponized against Musk.
After the Democrats installed Kamala Harris, Musk became an explicit Trump supporter and super-PAC funder. Now the press warns he’ll have a massive conflict of interest if he’s brought on by President Trump as a “government efficiency czar.” He has many millions of dollars in government contracts.
Graham didn’t explain why Musk should be exempt from government scrutiny — it would seem that he deserves more scrutiny because he has merged his business and political interests and has numerous government contracts. graham then huffed:
Musk’s publicity stunt of handing over $1 million a day to Americans who signed his petition in favor of the First and Second Amendments drew all kinds of negative attacks from the press. On October 21, CBS Mornings brought on their elections expert David Becker, who lusted openly about sending Musk to jail for five years for bribing voters.
On the last Saturday before the election, NBC News was warning that “at least nine of the 15 winners” of the big checks were either “registered Republicans” or “Republican-leaning.” Is that really a surprise or a scandal, conservatives backing the constitutional amendments?
In fact, Musk’s giveaway was rigged, with winners were chosen based on who would be effective political spokespeople rather than at random. Graham and the MRC has never disclosed that fact to its readers — and it’s something they would never shut up about if Musk was a Democrat.
Grahm then played hypocritical whataboutism: “Hunter Biden’s thicket of business interests in China were never interesting to CBS and the Democrats. But now that Musk is helping Trump? Look out!” He continued to deny the fact that Musk and other conservatives spread lies during the campaign:
Warner and the Democrats are upset that the social-media atmosphere isn’t censoring conservative “misinformation” enough. It’s not just X, but Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Musk made censorship uncool.
Journalists like Brennan complain about Musk spreading misinformation willy-nilly and then insist, “The facts were in Joe Biden’s favor on the economy. The facts were in Kamala Harris’s favor on the economy.” Liberals have this funny habit of declaring their opinions are facts. Therefore, dissenting opinions are “misinformation.”
In fact, it’s indisputable that Musk has spread misinformation and lies, and he still wants you to think it’s “censorship” to correct right-wing misinformation.
Graham spread even more Musk-related propaganda and misinformation in his Nov. 27 column:
There’s something about Donald Trump winning an election that drives journalists crazy. The National Press Club in the nation’s capital is an epicenter of media arrogance, as anyone could see from its November 21 “Fourth Estate Awards Gala,” in which they proclaimed they were honoring the “fearless pursuit of truth.”
But as always, the “truth” is expected to lead to “justice,” which in their view is the opposite of Trump winning the presidency again. Trump’s victory demoralized journalists. They felt like 76.8 million Americans completely ignored their years and years or besmirching Trump as a fascist threat to democracy.
Axios.com co-founder Jim VandeHei uncorked a temper tantrum at the awards ceremony, as he boasted about being in a “war for truth, for freedom.” Translation: For the Democrats. He can’t stand anyone attacking them for making “fake news,” or for ahem, engaging in non-stop Democrat Party talking points.
Graham didn’t explain why Fox News and the rest of the right-wing media deserves to be trusted for spreading his preferring Republican talking points. (Oh, and he deliberately got the Democratic Party’s name wrong, showing just how devoted he is to spreading propaganda and misinformation.) He went on to rant:
At 1 am on Election Night, as it became apparent Trump would win again, Musk tweeted, “You are the media.” This enraged VandeHei because journalism is an elite profession, for highly educated people who educate the masses, even if the masses don’t accept their lessons.
VandeHei lamented, “being a reporter’s hard. Really hard. You have to care. You have to do the hard work. You have to get up every single day, and say I want to get to the closest approximation of the truth without any fear, without any favoritism. You don’t do that by popping off on Twitter. You don’t do that by having an opinion. You do it by doing the hard work.”
VandeHei seems to forget that part of the reason people don’t trust journalists is they show a lot of favoritism. They fear being seen as too centrist by their colleagues. They spend large amounts of time popping off on Twitter and opinionating on cable television. Opinions are more highly prized than investigations. Investigative reporters aren’t making Scarborough money.
Yet Graham never complains about Fox News engaging in a lot of opinionating, let alone admitting that he should be just as distrustful of it — but he’ll never concede that point because that opinionating, and the misinformation that goes with it, advances his preferred partisan narrative.
Graham concluded:
If “smart” journalists want to figure out the election results, they can’t conclude that every media criticism is a lie. They have to engage with critiques and stop thinking they are the most heroic and crucial actors in politics, that democracy dies when people unsubscribe. They need to talk less, and listen more. Don’t count on that.
It’s hilarious that Graham is telling journalists they have to “engage with critiques” when he has muted us and blocked us from responding to his tweets. Perhaps he needs to stop thinking that he is among “the most heroic and crucial actors in politics” — so much so that he thinks he’s above criticism.
It seems that Graham needs to talk less, and listen more. Again, don’t count on that — yapping without listening is what he gets paid handsomely to do.