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.”
I find it hard to read tbh.
Once in a while, there is an interesting article, but that is increasingly rare.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 20, 2023
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.”
“Trusted media sources” lmao
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 19, 2023
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.
Also, their feed is the Twitter equivalent of diarrhea. It’s unreadable.
They would have far more real followers if they only posted their top articles.
Same applies to all publications.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 2, 2023
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.
The articles printed in newspapers are quite literally yesterday’s news
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 20, 2023