Elon Musk and X welcome back conspiracy theorist Alex Jones

Alex Jones, the Infowars founder and conspiracy theorist who, among other outrageous claims, repeatedly called the 2013 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary a hoax, is back on X — the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Yes, you read that right. The man who once claimed the murder of children in a mass shooting was “staged” and as “phony as a $3 bill” is allowed back on X.

Chief twit Elon Musk restored Jones’ account after he ran an online poll on Saturday asking users if Jones’ account — which was permanently banned in 2018, well before Musk bought the social media site — should be restored. Musk wrote on X, “Reinstate Alex Jones on this platform? Vox Populi, Vox Dei.”

“Vox Populi, Vox Dei” is Latin for “the voice of the people is the voice of God.”

According to the X poll, 1.96 million people responded, with 70% saying Jones’ account should be restored. Musk then wrote, “The people have spoken and so it shall be.”

Since the account was restored early in the morning hours of Sunday, Jones has posted or reposted several tweets.

Musk, who has been known to promote various conspiracy theories, insists this is strictly about freedom of speech. When one user on Twitter wrote, “Permanent account bans are antithetical to free speech,” Musk tweeted back, “I find it hard to disagree with this point.”

Musk also wrote, “I vehemently disagree with what he said about Sandy Hook, but are we a platform that believes in freedom of speech or are we not? That is what it comes down to in the end. If the people vote him back on, this will be bad for 𝕏 financially, but principles matter more than money.”

Musk also tweeted that the site will keep a close eye on the kinds of things Jones posts, writing, “It is a safe bet that Community Notes will respond rapidly to any AJ post that needs correction.”

So that means Jones, who was ordered in 2022 by a court to pay some families of Sandy Hook victims nearly $1.5 billion for false theories about the shooting that killed 20 first-graders and six educators, can now tweet away. His reinstatement comes just days after Jones was interviewed by Tucker Carlson. Jones told Carlson, “I trend all the time, ‘Hey, if you’re such an absolutist on free speech, bring back Alex Jones.’ I understand that he needs to go through a process before he does that.”

The New York Times’ Kate Conger wrote, “… the move could further alienate advertisers, who have abandoned the platform in droves over concerns that Mr. Musk’s lack of content moderation allowed their brands to appear alongside offensive content.”

Jones’ account was shut down in 2018 by management at Twitter, as it was known then, for promoting hate speech and antisemitic conspiracy theories, as well as amplifying other extremist voices. He also has been banned by Facebook and YouTube, and those bans are still in place.

This is a reversal for Musk, who a year ago said he would not reinstate Jones’ account. Musk wrote, “My firstborn child died in my arms. I felt his last heartbeat. I have no mercy for anyone who would use the deaths of children for gain, politics or fame.”

When another X user asked him to bring Jones back to X, Musk simply wrote, “No.”

That has now changed.

This Thursday will be the 11th anniversary of the Sandy Hook school shooting.

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Up for sale?

The New York Times’ Benjamin Mullin reports that media mogul Shari Redstone is in talks to sell a controlling stake in National Amusements, the parent company of such media outlets as CBS, MTV and the Paramount movie studio.

Last Thursday, Puck’s Matt Belloni reported that Redstone was in “super early” talks with Skydance, the media and entertainment company founded by David Ellison. He’s the son of billionaire Larry Ellison, the founder of the software/tech company Oracle.

Mullin wrote, “A deal for Ms. Redstone’s stake in National Amusements would represent a major changing of the guard in the media business. Paramount has been in the Redstone family for decades, since Ms. Redstone’s father, the bellicose deal maker Sumner Redstone, won the company in a hard-fought bidding war that drew heavyweights including the billionaire Barry Diller.”

Mullin added, “Ms. Redstone, 69, who waged a bitter battle with her onetime allies to retain control of the company, now appears to be seriously considering relinquishing it. She has held out for years amid broader headwinds facing the traditional media industry, but is exploring her options now that a serious suitor has expressed interest, two of the people said. Ms. Redstone’s holdings are facing some economic pressures, including long-term debt obligations and the unreliable advertising market for media companies like Paramount.”

Baseball writer calls out his colleagues

Shohei Ohtani might be the greatest baseball free agent ever. That’s because he is doing something we haven’t seen since the days of Babe Ruth: Ohtani is an elite hitter and pitcher. So the past couple of weeks have been a media frenzy as baseball reporters tried to figure out where Ohtani, who had been with the Los Angeles Angels, was going to sign next. On Saturday, he signed a 10-year contract worth an eye-popping $700 million with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

But let’s back up a day or two before that. With the baseball world on pins and needles, there were rumors that Ohtani might sign with the Toronto Blue Jays, which would have been a bit of a surprise.

Jon Morosi, a reporter for MLB Network, tweeted Friday afternoon: “Sources: Shohei Ohtani is en route to Toronto today. A representative of his agency, CAA, would not comment when asked about Ohtani’s travel plans. At this hour, Ohtani does not have a signed agreement with any @MLB team.”

This was a huge scoop. It fueled speculation that Ohtani might sign with the Blue Jays and excited Toronto fans.

Only one problem. It wasn’t true. Shortly after Morosi’s tweet, USA Today baseball columnist Bob Nightengale tweeted, “Shohei Ohtani is NOT in Toronto. Ohtani is NOT on a flight to Toronto. Ohtani is at home in Southern California.”

Friday night, about seven hours after his original tweet, Morosi tweeted, “Today, I posted reporting that included inaccurate information that Shohei Ohtani was traveling to Toronto. I regret the mistake and apologize to baseball fans everywhere. I am deeply sorry for letting you down.”

The media frenzy around where Ohtani was going to sign has more tentacles. Earlier last week, Nightengale tweeted, “The Chicago Cubs’ optimism of landing Shohei Ohtani has now significantly waned, one high-ranking executive said, leaving the LA Dodgers, Toronto Blue Jays, Los Angeles Angels and San Francisco Giants as the likely finalists.”

Then he wrote a story saying pretty much the same thing.

During a scrum with reporters, Cubs president Jed Hoyer said, “I don’t know where that report came from. I think on all of the Ohtani stuff, just like with any free agent, I’m not going to talk about discussions or meetings or where it is. I’ll keep that quiet, like anything else.”

But ESPN’s Jesse Rogers, who covers Chicago baseball, told Chicago sports talks station ESPN 1000, “A little inside baseball, Jed spoke with reporters a few minutes ago. As he was walking towards the group, he runs into Bob Nightengale and there were some stern words exchanged. I don’t know what was said, but stern words exchanged.”

OK, there’s more. Nightengale wrote in a column for USA Today that there were no stern words between him and Hoyer. Nightengale, in fact, said the conversation was about another player deal, writing, “The conversation lasted eight, maybe nine seconds. Next thing you know, a Chicago reporter breathlessly goes on his radio station and says that Hoyer and I got into a heated argument over the Cubs’ interest in Ohtani. The reckless report pops up on a Chicago website, and it goes viral. Never did Ohtani’s name come up. Never did Hoyer raise his voice. Never did this reporter ask Hoyer or myself what happened.”

Got all that? What a mess.

And Nightengale had enough of all this, as well as a bunch of other reporting around baseball’s winter meetings. He wrote in his column that the reporting around Ohtani brought out “the absolute worst” of baseball media.

“We baseball writers have disgraced ourselves, becoming an embarrassment to the journalism community,” Nightengale wrote.

He added, “We have made fools of ourselves plenty of times before in the history of baseball media, anywhere from criticizing the integration of the sport, to calling Ohtani a fraud in his first spring training, but we have taken this to new heights.”

He then goes on to write about how baseball media is used by team executives, player agents and others, and that journalists just often go along with it. He also admitted that, yes, false reports sometimes happen.

But, he wrote, “It’s time we take a deep breath, and check ourselves before we further wreck ourselves. We’ve caused enough damage, provoked heartache and have been irresponsible with fans’ emotions. It's a time to slow our roll — myself included — before we lose all of our credibility. If we learned anything in this Ohtani hysteria, we should remind ourselves of the values and ethics of journalism that we learned when we broke into this business, and become more cautious, careful and accurate when delivering news. It’s time to restore our values. Let’s make sure our embarrassing Black Friday never happens again.”

Hat tip to Awful Announcing’s Andrew Bucholtz for writing about Nightengale’s comments.

Sunday shows

Some interesting moments from the Sunday morning news shows:

• Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney was asked by moderator Kristen Welker if he would consider voting for Joe Biden in 2024. Romney said, “I'm not going to describe who I’ll rule out other than President Trump. You have a setting where you have someone who’s too old, and someone else who's a little too nutty and where are you going to vote on that basis? And by the way, in my view, bad policy we can overcome as a country — we have in the past. Bad character is something which is very difficult to overcome.”
• Former Vice President Al Gore talked to CNN’s “State of the Union” about Donald Trump possibly being reelected: “Well, I saw the other day where he pledged to be a dictator on day one, and you kind of wonder what it'll take for people to believe him when he tells us who he is. And the solution to political despair is political action. And for those in the Republican Party and the Democratic Party and independents who love American democracy and who want to preserve our capacity to govern ourselves and solve our problems, now’s the time to get active.”
• Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told Robert Costa on “CBS Sunday Morning” that he will endorse Donald Trump for president: “I will support the president. I will support President Trump.”
• More from the McCarthy interview. Costa asked McCarthy about Trump’s warnings of retribution if he gets back in office, and how he sounds like a fascist. McCarthy said, “I don’t see that. And this is what I tell President Trump too. What President Trump needs to do in this campaign, it needs to be about rebuilding, restoring, renewing America. It can’t be about revenge.” When McCarthy said Trump needs to stop talking about retribution, Costa had a good comeback: “You think he’s going to listen to you saying, ‘Stop that. Stop that?!’ He hasn’t listened to anybody before!”

Hot type

• The great John Branch of The New York Times looks at how new photos have shed light on two American climbers who lost their lives 50 years ago while climbing South America’s Aconcagua: “Ghosts on the Glacier.”
• The Los Angeles Times Sandra Song with “He turned his prison chess hobby into a wild street hustle. But can he beat the elites?”
• From The Associated Press: “Strike a pose — see AP’s top entertainment photos of 2023.”

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