Elon Musk , in the midst of acrusade against traditional media , offered up an example of an “ splendid ” analysis that could serve as an example of what good journalism should look like . Just one job : asSlate channelise out , the publication seems to have ties to a religious cult .
In a since - erase tweet , Musk linked to a objet d’art by Knife Media and commended it for using the “ principles of ” vital thought process ( double-dyed with a connexion to theWikipedia entry for the terminal figure ) . Knife Media is a rebranded translation of the Knife of Aristotle and , harmonize to an in - profoundness piece fromPaste Magazinepublished last year , the Knife of Aristotle is a rage .
ThearticleMusk praised feeling at the medium response to his call to start a medium credibility web site and determined that articles about Musk ’s announcement were mostly weight against him — therefore proving his full point that members of the media need to be held more accountable . It also presents those finding as the consequence of some form of proprietary process that Knife Media claims is “ found on scientific standard ” to detect “ spin , diagonal and other distortions in the news . ”
It ’s pretty obvious why that analysis would invoke to Musk : it tell exactly what he wants to get word . It also present the analysis as a sort of data - driven , “ documentary ” brushup of the media reporting that in world promotes the “ panorama from nowhere ” approach to news media . It docks the use of the idiom “ tweetstorm ” because it has a damaging connotation and commend “ a series of tweets , ” for deterrent example .
All of that is kind of superfluous to the real issue though , which is Knife Media has crosstie to a cult . It is link up to NXIVM , a distrust sex fad that you might remember in the headline because of Smallville actress Allison Mack’salleged amour .
As Paste points out , NXIVM prefers to be call a “ multi - level marketing company ” rather than a craze , which makes sensation because “ cult ” is a fairly harsh word . It ’d probably register as a very slanted terminal figure if run through the Knife ’s analysis . Then again , the organisation ’s drawing card , Keith Raniere , wasarrested in Marchon charges of sex trafficking , in addition to accusations of intimate blackmail and domination including thebranding of woman . All of that sounds a tidy sum more like a cultus than , say , Herbalife ( whichalso sucksbut for other reasons ) .
To be fair to Musk , there ’s next to no way that he would have get it on just by expect at the Knife ’s website that it had any tie to an so-called sex cult . But that ’s also kinda the point . Musk is not an expert in news media or media criticism . He ’s just a guy who , after receiving fawning imperativeness for age , eventually has started to present some literary criticism — much of which has been earned by overpromising and underdelivering — and does n’t really worry for it . And had he completed a round-eyed Google search of the publishing , he would have found tons of information from licit retail store laying out the descent of the Knife in open terms .
Oh , and for a guy who hopes to hold the media accountable , Musk sure did n’t take much answerableness for join to the Knife . He deleted the initial tweet , but uphold to defend the psychoanalysis in a subsequenttweet , submit “ Sadly , it had better critical analytic thinking than most non - cult medium . ”
lamentably , it had good decisive analysis than most non - cult media
— Elon Musk ( @elonmusk)May 27 , 2018
Just take off until you ’re on Mars , Musk . you may write all the rules for media up there .
[ Slate ]
Elon Musk
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