Elon Musk was recently in news for starting a website to rate the journalists as well as media houses. Many of the reporter’s as well as media personalities were against the idea of rating them. The debate was still on as to whether such idea holds any merit or not. However, it seems like his idea is not able to gain ground and is already failing.
Recommending the wrong site:
Recently, his website recommended an article on the website The Knife. He cited it is an excellent analysis. However, this website is a rebranded one and the older version of the website was called The Knife of Aristotle. This older website was a cult. It was also suspected to be a sex cult. The owner of the website Keith Raniere was arrested in March of this year and charged with various crimes ranging from forcing his followers to have intercourse with them to have them branded. Once Musk recommended the article, the controversy erupted. Even though he deleted the tweet after a certain period of time but till then, the controversy had become bigger.
He had cited that article has clearly articulated the way in which the media was opposing the objectivity ratings. He later on, also defended his article stating that article as a whole was a good piece of critical analysis.
According to his website, ignoring the critical analysis which the website takes up on the pretense that it might be associated with the sex cult counts for faulty logic rating according to the website of musk. According to some estimates, the report which was cited by musk has a 93% objectivity rating. While there will be a 27 point penalty for not choosing a credible source. This clearly indicates that he is not choosing the report in a sound way. It was also clear from the fact that he had to delete his tweet after a certain period of time.
While he might have tweeted a wrong report but the question which remains is whether the idea of objective ratings for the media is the right move or whether it should be junked altogether. Only when that is answered, can the media as an industry move forward. Till that point in time, even though the idea is currently junked but it will surely receive some attention over the coming few days.
Keyword: the knife, Elon Musk, media accountability
