You can’t privatize government communication and that is precisely what the National Transportation Safety Board is planning to do. They came out with a statement Saturday that going forward, all information on NTSB matters will be solely available on an “X” account, which they provided. X is a private media platform, just like this one you’re on now is. X is owned by Elon Musk. He can, in theory at least, kick anybody off the platform he wants to. But that’s not the point, just the opposite is: He wants to force a situation where if you, me, the New York Times, anybody wants to find out about NTSB business, they go on X. No, Elon, you can go to Hell first. You don’t get a monopoly on the dispensation of public information.
Atlanta News First investigator Brendan Keefe said, “The NTSB is requiring a free press to join a private website run by a presidential appointee in order to access public information about the worst US air disaster in a generation.”
Mother Jones editor Michael Mechanic chimed in, “This is a horses— policy.”
“You’d best create an NTSB account on Bluesky, because given Elon Musk’s direct political involvement, X is no longer an ethical or appropriate venue for distributing agency information,” the editor wrote.
A popular lawyer known as southpaw said, “This amounts to a federal subsidy of this platform—which is owned by the president’s biggest donor, who as it happens has made it into a gathering place for Nazis.”
“It is a self-inflicted wound to the credibility and integrity of the NTSB, a once world class safety org,” the attorney wrote.
One user with thousands of followers, Art Martin, plainly accused NTSB of “breaking the law.”
“A government agency is not permitted to restrict its obligation to inform the public, by making it available only on a privately run platform,” the account wrote.
Treasury and finance director Andrew Smolenski asked, “What about media and other providers that do not have an X account?”
“Forcing the use of a singular PRIVATE corporate platform seems a bit monopolistic. This is not right,” Smolenski added.
Progressive commentator Brian Beutler, who writes “Off Message,” had some advice from how to go forward:
“An aggressive litigant can get this enjoined Monday,” he wrote on Saturday. “From there, make it hurt; make the Supreme Court say Republican presidents can privatize government communication on the platforms of their Nazi-aligned donors.”
Political scientist and scholar Norman Ornstein simply added, “The grift is supreme.”
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called a smash & grab
I don’t remember signing up to be a child psychologist for the Musk/Trump administration. These two little babies grew up in fabulous wealth and have never been told “no” by anyone who didn’t back down when the whining began. Our courts can be used to bring them to heel, but it is slow. We may be at our fire and pitchfork stage.