Elon Musk hits out at ‘extremely skilled propagandist’ Jon Stewart over X criticism
Elon Musk hit back at The Daily Show host Jon Stewart after he criticized his social media platform X (formerly Twitter), labelling the comic “an extremely skilled propagandist.”
Speaking on the latest episode of his podcast The Weekly Show, Stewart said that the world’s richest man “has pushed this idea that undocumented, non-citizen voting is rampant, it is sowing the seeds of our destruction, and we cannot do it.
“The irony of it all is [because of] this guy’s platform, this guy’s algorithm, which he is in charge of… he is a far more relevant actor in the warping of our democracy, through his money and his algorithm, than any measure of undocumented, non-citizen voting will ever be.”
As his guests, Platformer editor Casey Newton and Georgetown University research professor Renee DiResta, nodded in agreement, Stewart continued: “What his argument – and I think his people’s argument – would be, is: Now that we’re getting uncensored material, now that the First Amendment has primacy, people move to the right because they learn the truth.
“But the truth is that the algorithm incentivizes the misinformation from the right, and he designs it.”
Musk reacted to a clip of the exchange on X by saying, “Jon Stewart is an extremely skilled propagandist disguised as a truth-teller.”
The host responded, “Elon Musk is an extremely skilled propagandist,” pointedly leaving out the latter qualifier.
“Not as good as you! Stop being so humble,” the tech boss answered, prompting Stewart to repeat an offer he made last year to appear on his show.
Musk said in February last year, while he was leading President Donald Trump’s DOGE operation to cut federal expenditure, that he would appear on the long-running Comedy Central satire “if the show airs unedited.”
“We’d be delighted!” the show replied on X but the billionaire has yet to make an appearance and Stewart later complained that Musk had “ghosted him.”
The comic said his efforts to make the interview happen were ignored by the SpaceX and Tesla boss, with messages sent to him appearing to have been read but not replied to.
“Judging from his most recent revelations of his baby mamas, I think everyone has been left on read at some point by that gentleman,” Stewart joked. “I got left on read man.”
More follows…
Source: independent.co.uk
