Curtis Houck
NewsBusters managing editor
Curtis Houck currently serves as the Managing Editor of NewsBusters after almost two years as a news analyst in the Media Research Center’s news analysis division. During that time, he served as the sole evening news analyst, chronicling the best and worst of the network evening newscasts, primetime cable shows and late-night comedy programs. From January 2016 to April 2016, he also acted as the Sunday news analyst for NewsBusters.
On Friday, ABC’s Good Morning America and NBC’s Today were in a state of anger, shock and sadness over a number of their fellow leftists propagandists being suspended from Twitter late Thursday over what new boss Elon Musk insisted was a violation of the company’s doxxing policies and sharing information about his movements.
Agree or disagree with the decision, but one has to acknowledge the irony of ABC and NBC setting aside time to lament the plight of their comrades in keyboarding whereas conservatives faced years of censorship, election interference and anti-American browbeating from Big Tech and their media allies.
ABC was so high on itself and self-absorption that they not only led the show with this supposed affront to their lives, but they spend a combined three minutes and seven seconds on it with reports leading each hour and a news brief at 7:30 am Eastern [time].
“Overnight, Elon Musk suspending the Twitter accounts of multiple journalists. Twitter banned. The accounts of leading journalists from news outlets suddenly suspended saying the users, ‘violated Twitter rules’. The platform’s new owner, Elon Musk, claiming a violation of policy for sharing what he calls assassination coordinates. The reaction this morning,” announced co-host Michael Strahan in an opening tease.
After a toss from co-host and former Clinton official George Stephanopoulos, World News Now and America This Morning co-host Andrew Dymburt said Musk’s “latest move as boss” was “wielding his power to suspend several well-known journalists without much explanation overnight” though some “include people who have been critical of him”.
Dymburt lamented that the suspended individuals come from outlets such as “The New York Times, The Washington Post, and CNN for allegedly violating the company’s new doxxing policy by sharing his live location”.
“Doxxing referring to sharing someone’s identity, address or other personal information online. Late Thursday, Musk joined a Twitter Spaces conference to address the decision,” Dymburt added with Musk saying in a clip that “[y]ou dox, you get suspended, end of story, that’s it”.
Dymburt said this stemmed from Musk’s recent banning of the account @ElonJet which “tracked the location of his private yet using publicly available data despite saying last month he would leave the account up as part of his commitment to free speech.”
“Some reporters of the reporters suspended Thursday night had been reporting on the new doxxing policy. Musk falsely claimed that the journalists had violated his new doxxing policy by sharing his live location amounting to what he described as “assassination coordinates,’” Dymburt said.
He closed by citing a portion of CNN PR’s juvenile statement about the suspension of disinformation hack Donie O’Sullivan, warning that Twitter’s “response” will determine their future on the platform.
In the brief, Stephanopoulos griped that it was “hard to figure out” the reasoning behind Musk’s decision that triggered this the “breaking news overnight.” He huffed that this story “comes amid a wave of controversy on content moderation since Musk took over.”
Stephanopoulos would then repeat his grievance at the top of the 8:00 am Eastern [time] hour in going to Dymburt, who then offered up a second story with much of the same verbiage. After, Strahan lamented that “the rules are changing like the wind”.
As we learned from the Twitter Files, that was certainly the case behind closed doors with the old regime.
NBC’s Today had 36 seconds on the case in the form of a news brief from co-host Savannah Guthrie that announced “Twitter has suspended several high-profile journalists who cover the platform and its CEO, Elon Musk” with some denying they had doxxed his location. And, as you can see below, she called the hubbub “Twitter turmoil” in a tease:
GUTHRIE [in tease]: Twitter turmoil. The accounts of search prominent journalists who cover Elon Musk suddenly suspended overnight. Why critics are calling the move very concerning.
(….)
GUTHRIE: Twitter has suspended several high-profile journalists who cover the platform and its CEO, Elon Musk. The list includes employees of The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, and several other outlets. Musk says the suspensions stem from the platform’s new rules banning users from sharing private jet trackers. Musk tweeted, “Criticizing all day long is fine, but doxxing my real time location and endangering my family is not.” He later added the suspensions would last seven days, though some of the journalists said they were told the bans were permanent and many of those journalists say they were not reporting those coordinates at all.
And on CBS Mornings, they went about their show covering other issues and didn’t engage in a real act of self-worship other than to run two clips in its “Eye Opener” from overnight shows for a combined six seconds.
The suspensions came after Musk said a stalker had tracked down his son Tuesday and attacked the car he was travelling in by even jumping on the hood.
This meltdown of a profession beset by raging narcissists was made possible thanks to advertisers such as Citi (on NBC) and the UPS Store (on ABC). Follow the links to see their contact information at the MRC’s Conservatives Fight Back page.
To see the relevant transcripts from December 16, click here (for ABC), here (for CBS), and here (for NBC).
