Conservative media is failing Elon Musk
Elon Musk sounded a touch casual when he called Social Security a “Ponzi scheme” in a Feb. 28 appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast. The comment didn’t surface until the second hour of the taping, after Rogan talked about “pump and dumps” and other get-rich-quick schemes.
Musk joined in: “I mean, the government’s one big pyramid scheme, if you ask me. … Social Security is the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.”
“Right — explain that,” requested Rogan, triggering a Musk monologue about the growing obligations of Social Security versus its funding. “Ahhooh,” Rogan said upon its conclusion, sounding as if he’d been enlightened.
He hadn’t been: Musk was slandering Social Security to embellish his own reform efforts. Whereas a Ponzi scheme runs on lies to an ever-growing crew of new investors, Social Security relies on actual tax contributions from American workers. “You do not have Ponzi schemes that last 90 years,” says Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works.
Related Knowledge Center: Democracy and politics
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Related Knowledge Center: Information integrity
In an increasingly fractured media landscape, truth has been a casualty in the public discussion. Coverage has been warped by the business needs of struggling news organizations, and a significant segment of the public relies on bad-faith outlets that are little more than propagandists. While fact-checking has become routine, some organizations are exploring other ways to combat the trends. And misinformation spewed by AI-driven chatbots has become more of a feature than simply a bug.
Fact-checking and its detractors
Related Knowledge Center: The White House vs. the press
Whether it’s the Des Moines Register’s publication of an unfavorable election poll, a routine edit of a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris, or the Associated Press’s decision in its authoritative stylebook to continue to use “Gulf of Mexico,” Donald Trump and the White House have used executive authority and legal reprisals in an effort to punish and suppress press coverage that runs contrary to the administration’s preferred narratives.
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