Entry #3: Thanksgiving Dinner

     When the topic of slant reporting is brought up, it is hard not to go straight to politics and how the titans of political media are mismanaging their power by inserting their own narratives while claiming to be unbiased, demonizing whoever is on the opposite side of the court. 

    Elon Musk has been investing a lot of time and money to lessen the amount of misinformation by legitimizing levels of X to report all ends of the political spectrum in one service with the intent to show that the extremes of each side are not the only voices out there. One of the ways this is being done is by hiring political reporters from the left, right, and middle of the political seesaw who seem to have some semblance of journalistic integrity.

    Musk's most recent hire and fire was Don Lemon, a "popular" CNN political reporter who was let go last year for his comments on specific incumbents of the republican party. Lemon conducted an interview with Musk set to be the first episode to kick off the show's series premiere on X but was immediately fired after the interview took place due to the clear "gotcha" agenda attached with nearly every question after the first 13 minutes. 

    I find that there is this ideology that you must dance around the lines of disrespect and general decency to your fellow human within certain mainstream media crowds that makes people think they can just say whatever they want as long as this idea is stamped somewhere within the interview. We live in a very black-and-white society that has made people forget what it means to have integrity in the work that you do. 

    Lemon was conducting himself in a playful yet professional way that was enjoyable to watch as someone who finds the news, specifically CNN, to be insufferable and something I stay away from. Then, after the warm-up questions ended, he just couldn't help himself. He kicks it up from blowing off steam by playing video games to using X as a form of decompressing, followed up with, "You admitted having a ketamine prescription; what's that for?" This question put a bad taste in Musk's mouth, shifting the interview dynamic for the remaining 40 minutes or so.

    There is no one place specific to which Lemon is being slanted. The entire interview, from start to finish, seemed very slanted. He maintained a sly level of cool, calm, and collected demeanor the whole time, dowsing Musk in gasoline as he gaslit him with each new question. I have to give Lemon props for having a clear goal in mind, never deviating as he played the "who, me?" card and prefaced each question with lighthearted remarks as he loaded his gun between Musk's blinks. 

    I appreciate the irony within myself as I try to write an unbiased blog about an interviewer being quite slanted. I too am being slanted, even biased at times, but hey, this is what you get when you ask someone to express their feelings and the topic lands on current affairs.