Intellectually Dishonest

About blaming the advertisers, that is...

I hate to be the latest guy to pile on, but it’s not the first time and won’t be the last... plus it’s an easy way to get back into the grind after a few weeks of traveling. Now, onto the show...

He said, what?

I’m not talking about Elon Musk’s “go fuck yourself” comment, after Andrew Ross Sorkin of CNBC and the New York Times asked the world’s richest man (as of last count) about an advertising boycott of his X, the former Twitter.

I’m more focused on his attempt to lay the blame on advertisers if the company fails... in hopes, no doubt, that his most ardent users and fans will boycott advertisers that boycotted X.

Before I go further, if you missed the interview, which you can see here, a quick summary...

‘I Hope They Stop’

Earlier in the day Disney CEO Bob Iger told Sorkin that his firm had pulled advertising from X because doing so was “not a positive” for his company.

When Sorkin brought that up, Musk shot back, “I hope they stop,” adding, “Don’t advertise.”

Musk then accused the advertisers of trying to “blackmail” him.

He added...

What this advertising boycott is gonna do is it’s going to kill the company. And the whole world will know that those advertisers killed the company, and we will document it in great detail.

Sorkin then said, “And those advertisers will say we didn’t kill the company.”

Musk responded, “Oh yeah, tell it to earth...”

To which Sorkin said, “They’re going to say Elon you killed the company because you said these things and they were inappropriate things and they didn’t feel comfortable on the platform...”

Musk responded, “And let’s see how earth responds to that.”

There was more, but no need to rehash it. I’m still back on his use of the word “earth.” Who speaks that way? Okay, Musk does, but the whole exchange underscored something deeper...

Petulant 13-Year Old

Here was a 52-year-old acting like a petulant 13-year-old and doing what almost all 13-year-olds do: blaming others

Here’s the problem with that logic as it applies to advertisers…

No business is more dependent on advertisers than the news business, and media in general, where advertiser boycotts have always been a risk – a very real risk.

Nobody knows this better than my brother, Howard, who spent his entire career on the business side of newspapers, much of it with the old Tribune Co. When he retired a few years ago, he was CEO of the Tribune-owned Sun Sentinel Media Group, where at one point, at the same time, he was publisher of both the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in Ft. Lauderdale and the Orlando Sentinel. As he told me...

Normally advertisers pull out when something is written about them or their industry. In most cases it gets resolved and its back to business as usual.

That’s in a typical situation, but he adds...

This is different. It’s more of an ‘unresolvable’ slam at ethnic groups and religions. It’s why they don’t advertise on porn sites or endorse the KKK. It offends way too many consumers.

Owner Sets the Tone

And that’s the point: Regardless of the industry, some models work, some don’t.

It’s one thing for there to be politically polarizing posts on X by users; it’s another when they cross the bigotry and hate lines.

It’s yet another if the owner, in this case Musk, crosses those lines... or is perceived as having done so. And if he does – even with apology after apology – he does so at his own risk, risking the business in the process.

After all, unlike a privately owned newspaper, X claims to be a “public town square” that is open to everybody, so the owner sets the standards.

All of which gets us back to who would be at fault here if X were to fail...

When businesses fail it’s generally either because of poor management or a bad model... or both.

In this case, the business model of X or Twitter as a stand-alone company has always been an issue, going way back its pre-public days. And goading the very sources of revenue to “stop” and “don’t advertise” would not be considered good management.

Nobody to Blame But Himself

In other words, if Twitter were to fail, Musk would have nobody to blame but himself.

Would it be because the advertisers left? Sure, but they did so because of the way Musk was running the business. The way he blamed them, in my view, was simply intellectually dishonest… seemingly designed to stoke a mob.

If you didn’t know better – (and let me stress: I don’t!) – you’d think two things:

1. Social media is no better than a billboard for advertisers. And at a time many companies are cutting costs, it would appear these companies may be using Musk’s actions as a reason to pull the plug on something that showed little return on their investment.

2. X is already failing, and Musk is looking for a scapegoat. The advertising boycott would give him the perfect foil... and he saw an exquisitely timed opportunity with Sorkin’s interview to prime that pump.

Speaking of Blackmail…

One other thing: Musk sounded as if X users will boycott the advertisers – as if there is no alternative to X. (Talk about blackmail, but I digress…)

Many very well might, but others have moved on. I still post there at times, but my overall activity on X has slowed to a dribble and is a fraction of what it used to be. (I opted not to be blackmailed into buying a blue check mark, which I originally was given for free… because of my media presence.)

I now find that my Threads feed, combined with LinkedIn, fulfills most of my main social media needs. I’m also fairly active on Notes on Substack (self-serving, of course) and use Facebook, but sparingly, for friends and certain groups.

X still has a lock on the financial Twitter or FinTwit world, as it’s called. But that’s still arguably up for grabs.

In all, I spend considerably less time on social media than I used to, when I spent way too much time on Twitter. While I do miss elements of the old Twitter, breaking the addiction was a good thing, which I explained in my “Thank You, Elon Musk” post last summer. Seems as relevant today as it was then.

As always, If you liked this please don’t forget to click the heart below, and share with your friends.

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DISCLAIMER: This is solely my opinion based on my observations and interpretations of events, based on published facts and filings, and should not be construed as personal investment advice. (Because it isn’t!)

Feel free to contact me at herbgreenberg@substack.com. You can follow me on Twitter and Threads @herbgreenberg.