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Musk’s X Removes Gold Verified Badge From New York Times Account

Elon Musk’s X removed the gold “verified” badge from The New York Times main account on the social media platform following the paper’s errant reporting on the Gaza hospital bombing.

Based on the word of Hamas officials, the NYT and virtually all other corporate media outlets blamed Israel for the blast, claiming the IDF had struck the hospital with a missile, killing over 500 people. The NYT went a step further, featuring on it’s front page a picture of bombed out buildings nowhere near the hospital.

“I find it hard to read tbh [to be honest], Musk said in response to the Times’ dishonest report. “Once in a while, there is an interesting article, but that is increasingly rare.”

The Times later tried to excuse its errant reporting by explaining that “fast-moving events” had made covering the war difficult. After X user Max Meyer described the headline as a “work of art,” Musk responded: “Trusted media sources lmao.”

 

The official X account of the NYT temporarily lost its verification mark in April of 2023 after refusing to pay monthly subscriptions.

The paper said at the time: “We aren’t planning to pay the monthly fee for check mark status for our institutional Twitter accounts.”

On April 2, 2023, X removed the Times’ gold verified marker as Musk bashed the news organization, calling its main feed the “equivalent of diarrhea” and “unreadable.”

“The real tragedy of @NYTimes is that their propaganda isn’t even interesting.” Musk wrote.

Later that month, “X reinstated the badge for the Times and other big accounts, including for those who declined to pay or said they didn’t want it,” the Washington Post reported. “Neither the Times nor The Post has ever paid the fee, according to people familiar with both organizations.”

On Tuesday, the Times’ main account showed no verification checkmark at all.

 

However, by Friday, a profile image of the account displayed a blue check.

 

 

In its report about Musk’s latest move against the Times, the Washington Post complained about the “unexplained decision,” arguing that the gold badge “was the only symbol distinguishing the Times’ 55-million-follower account from impostors amid two major global conflicts in Israel and Ukraine.”

Despite the NYT’s egregious reporting on the hospital blast, the Post went on to criticize Musk for allowing “misinformation” to flood his site.

“And it comes at a time when Musk and his platform, along with other social media and news aggregators, are receiving increasing criticism for not policing the misinformation that is flooding the sites,” the Post opined.

The paper noted that its own badge, along with the badges for other major news outlets like The Associated Press, Bloomberg News, The Wall Street Journal and CNN remain.

In a post Friday, Musk suggested that he has a low opinion of all of them.

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About Debra Heine

Debra Heine is a conservative Catholic mom of six and longtime political pundit. She has written for several conservative news websites over the years, including Breitbart and PJ Media.

Photo: In this photo illustration created on April 2, 2023, the profile image of The New York Times Twitter account is reflected in tweets by Twitter CEO Elon Musk, in Washington, DC. - Twitter has removed the gold "verified" marker from the New York Times' main account, as CEO Elon Musk bashed the news organization as "propaganda" on Sunday and the platform transitioned to a paid verification scheme. In the early hours of Sunday, Musk targeted the New York Times in several tweets, saying, "The real tragedy of @NYTimes is that their propaganda isn't even interesting" and calling its main feed the "equivalent of diarrhea" and "unreadable." (Photo by Stefani REYNOLDS / AFP) (Photo by STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)

Notable Replies

  1. No! I can’t believe that Elon Musk did that! I worry that the ladies at the Times will decide to take their dollies off X and go home.

  2. If only more Americans would understand that ANYTHING that comes from the Enemedia (of which NYT is arguably the Grand Wizard), is pure, unadulterated propaganda. And I mean this so literally, that if the NYT or any Enemedia organization said the Sun would rise from the East tomorrow morning, I’d be up at daybreak to verify that.

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