The FTC’s demand that Twitter reveal the names of journalists who were granted access to company records is being assailed as “an outrageous attack on the First Amendment.”
Matt Taibbi, the former Rolling Stone journalist, blasted his “former colleagues in mainstream media” for failing to cover what is being billed as “insane overreach” by Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan [inset, AP].
He wrote that the lack of media outrage was “particularly infuriating” given that none of the journalists who published the “Twitter Files” had “asked for nor received access to private user data” whereas “the Files themselves are full of instances of government agencies improperly asking for the same.”
“Which journalists a company or its executives talks to is not remotely the government’s business. This is an insane overreach,” according to Taibbi.
In a Twitter thread, Taibbi referred to mainstream reporters as “spineless, corrupt, amoral f–kwits.” ...
Supporters of [new Twitter owner Elon] Musk argue that the FTC’s probe smacks of political retribution.
Musk himself took aim at the FTC, calling it a “shameful case of weaponization of a government agency for political purposes and suppression of the truth!”
now reading:
Investigative Issues: Matt Taibbi Rips ‘Spineless’ Media for Ignoring FTC’s Demand for Twitter to Reveal Journalists
