Bari Weiss responds to critics saying Twitter Files reports ‘cherry picks’: ‘Twitter misled the public’

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Freelance journalist Bari Weiss has dismissed criticism from legacy media that has advanced the idea that she and those who reported on Elon Musk’s Twitter files “choose” their findings.

In an article published in her recently launched newspaper The Free Press, Weiss explained how she and fellow journalist Matt Taibbi were exploited by Musk to gain access to Twitter’s wealth of documents.

“Was I interested in looking at the Twitter archives, he asked. And how soon could I get to Twitter headquarters? Two hours later, I was on a flight from Los Angeles to San Francisco with my wife, Free Press editor Nellie Bowles, and our three-month-old baby,” Weiss recalled of his first interaction with Musk on Dec. 2.

Weiss compared the scale of the dive into Twitter’s vast archive to “trying to put together a 100,000 piece jigsaw puzzle”, revealing that his team “worked with lawyers” using e-discovery software to help search for key terms like names and dates and use the results to “assemble a timeline of events and communications”. The only condition, Weiss said, was that their findings had to be posted on Twitter first.

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“We did not selectively retrieve, or select, files for the purpose of serving any particular program,” Weiss wrote. “Our goal was simply to understand what happened at crucial times in the history of the country and the company.”

Bari Weiss, editor of The Free Press and host of the “Honestly” podcast, wrote about the process behind her reporting on the “Twitter Files”. (Reuters/Mike Blake)

Regarding Musk’s ‘goal’ with his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, he told Weiss it wasn’t to ‘reestablish a satirical blog’, referring to Babylon’s ban Bee who would have long inspired the billionaire to buy the tech giant.

“I did it because I was worried about the future of civilization,” Musk said. “Birth rates are falling, the thought police are growing in power, and even having an opinion is enough to be avoided. We are going in the wrong direction.”

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According to Weiss, Musk “wants to transform Twitter from a social media platform that is distrusted and despised by at least half the country into one that is widely endorsed by most Americans. For it to fulfill its highest mission: that of a digital public square where all ideas can be heard, and the best will prevail.”

“To regain that trust, Musk thought he would have to be honest about what had happened, until very recently, in the company he had just bought: the removal of disadvantaged users; the restriction of certain political views; the censorship of stories like the Hunter Biden laptop; and the extent to which the government has attempted to influence such decisions,” Weiss wrote.

The ‘Honestly’ podcast host continued on Musk’s vow that Twitter would become a ‘level playing field’ and be ‘consistent and transparent’, but questions remained about what he intended to do with it. the “powerful tools” created by Twitter to censor its users. .

“What’s surprising is how Twitter misled the public, insisting it didn’t remove underprivileged users and topics when it did,” said Weiss to his readers. “If I’ve taken anything away from my week on Twitter, it’s about power. It’s about how a handful of unelected people in a handful of private companies can profoundly influence public discourse. “They can do this because of the quality of the tools they’ve made and how little the public understands them. They can influence the outcome of the election. And they do.”

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She continued, “Because all of these people tend to move and think as one, there’s something refreshing about Musk bursting into the Market Street Twitter Tower and turning the tables. But I don’t I’m not sure anyone should have that kind of power. At one point, I asked Musk what he thought of this review, just like Twitter’s old guard had too much power, too. I’m open to questions. ideas, he said.

Weiss went on to note how the Twitter Files have gained coverage in conservative and online media when “the legacy press and Americans who depend on it barely seem to know it exists.”

Many on the left are sounding the alarm over Elon Musks’ takeover of Twitter. (FOX)

“We live in a culture that suffers from a lack of open, transparent, and informed public debate. For people to have the courage to speak their minds, they must at least know what’s going on,” Weiss wrote. . “The former Twitter executive curtailed public debate; drew arbitrary lines between what’s fake and what’s real; and ordinary Americans were gassed. Musk says he won’t. to be waiting for the inevitable third owner to open another set of archives. my teenage daughter on a plane for this.”

Understack writer Matt Taibbi went viral with the first episode of the “Twitter Files” which focused on internal Twitter discussions that led to him censoring the Hunter Biden laptop story during the 2020 presidential election, with some officials struggling to explain how he breached his “pirated materials”. “Strategies.

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It was later revealed that the first batch of ‘Twitter Files’ had been reviewed without Musk’s knowledge by Twitter’s Assistant General Counsel Jim Baker, who previously served as FBI General Counsel and was involved in the investigation. on Russia. Musk fired Baker soon after.

Baker was swept away by Taibbi’s reporting on the suppression of the Hunter Biden story, telling his colleagues at the time, “I support the conclusion that we need more facts to assess whether the material was hacked,” but added, “It’s reasonable for us to assume they may have been hacked and caution is warranted.”

Independent journalists Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss were asked by Elon Musk to report on the “Twitter Files”. (Daniel Zuchnik/WireImage, Bari Weiss)

Additionally, Taibbi originally reported, “Although multiple sources recall hearing of a blanket warning from federal law enforcement that summer regarding possible foreign hacks, there is no evidence – that I’ve seen – of any government involvement in the laptop story.” It is unclear whether Baker’s involvement in verifying the “Twitter Files” led Taibbi to this conclusion and whether Baker omitted any files that would have shown the feds intervening in Twitter’s suppression of Twitter’s story. Hunter Biden’s laptop.

The second episode posted by Bari Weiss revealed Twitter’s “blacklist” of prominent conservatives, including Fox News host Dan Bongino, Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA, as well as Dr Jay Bhattacharya of Stanford University , a longtime opponent of COVID groupthink during the pandemic who has expressed opposition to lockdowns.

Internal communications also reveal Twitter staffers admitting that TikTok’s popular Libs account never violated its “hateful conduct” policy despite being repeatedly punished for allegedly doing so.

The third, fourth and fifth installments of the “Twitter Files” focused on former President Trump’s permanent suspension around the Capitol riots in January 2021.

Taibbi reported how Twitter circulated election-related tweets from various users ahead of the 2020 election that were “flagged” by the FBI as problematic.

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Freelance writer Michael Shellenberger has revealed Dorsey called him while on vacation as his deputies pushed to misrepresent Trump with Roth in a particularly big effort to censor other users regarding tweets about the 2020 election.

Elon Musk took over Twitter in October 2022. (REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration)

On Monday, Weiss addressed the pressure Twitter management was facing from its employees who called for Trump’s permanent suspension, although the Free Press editor also revealed that several staff members of Twitter who enforce the policies did not believe that Trump’s Jan. 6 tweets actually violated his rules.

However, it was Vijaya Gadde, then Twitter’s chief legal officer, who questioned whether Trump’s tweets could be “a coded incitement to more violence.” Moments later, the so-called “wide enforcement team” suggested that, based on how Twitter interprets Trump’s tweets, it may be violating incitement to violence policies.

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Musk had insisted on transparency regarding Twitter’s past and present actions in curating content on the platform, including censored content.

Joseph A. Wulfsohn is a reporter for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to [email protected] and on Twitter: @JosephWulfsohn.

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