Given that everybody knew exactly what was going on, I'm still surprised to see the response to the release of the Twitter Files.
This goes for the reaction of journalists, which remind me of Project Mockingbird, going after the journalist Matt Taibbi.
Still, hundreds of the most prominent journalists are just repeating the same phrase in unison, that Taibbi is just a PR mouth for Musk.
There are a couple of things which should stand out though:
Taibbi has left only ad hominem attacks viable.
How so? Well he exposed another layer of collusion between governments and big tech that undermined election integrity and democracy. This is hard to refute so they just go after him instead.
The media protests too much.
They are the same people who take points from the State Department and Intelligence community. They are the grunts of some of the most powerful (and awful) people on the planet. Literally taking money from the Raytheons, Boeings, Lockheed-Martin etc. Have you ever thought how weird it was that a segment on CNBC was sponsored by Boeing? Are they hoping that the audience will see it and just buy a jumbo jet? Of course not! They're doing it because the news outlet then becomes dependent on their funding. (Remind you of how SBF purchases good press to cover up his fraud?)
They take the money and then are obligated to report "sources in the Pentagon say" without ever requiring evidence. They are also the same group of people who complain that Taibbi reported on internal Twitter documents Elon Musk was willing to release to him.
Real threats to democracy aren't hiding in some underground dark corner of the web.
Really, we have agencies like the FBI who have been trying to swing elections in their favour since atleast Dewey vs Truman. The same FBI that continues to collude and coerce big tech and big media. They're not even the only government doing so, but they're just an example of a government agency willing to push agendas that undermine people around the world, not just at home.
The real threat to democracy is a coercive government intent on controlling the narrative whilst parroting free speech. The real threat is the corporate press that serve as mouthpieces for the worst people in the world.
Taibbi and journalists like him, deserve support from us. The vast majority of journalists on stuff like cable news or NYT should be viewed as lower than the lobbyists and executives at Philip Morris. They're contemptible vile people selling poison for profit and they should be treated as such.
If you've ever been concerned about threats to democracy over the last couple of years but ignore these things, you're part of the problem too!