The cryptocurrency community has been reminded again to be skeptical about mainstream media amid the ongoing scandal involving NPR CEO Katherine Maher.
The resignation of NPR senior business editor Uri Berliner has triggered shock waves in the media industry. Politicians, activists and editors have blasted NPR CEO and former Wikimedia CEO Maher after Berliner was penalized for criticizing NPR’s coverage in The Free Press.
Some critics moved to support the former NPR editor, with activist Christopher Rufo posting a video with Maher admitting that Wikipedia censored certain information during the 2020 U.S. elections and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Although the video was made during an online panel discussion at the 360/Open Summit held by the Atlantic Council in 2021, Maher’s speech has gone viral on the social media platform X amid Berliner’s resignation.
“We took a very active approach to disinformation and misinformation coming into not just the last election but also looking at how we supported our editing community in an unprecedented moment where we were not only dealing with the global pandemic,” Maher says in the video.
She admitted that the Wikimedia Foundation — the owner of Wikipedia — set up “sort of a clearinghouse of information” in response to the election and the pandemic, so the editors could cooperate with the government to “identify threats.”
In the same speech, Maher reportedly stated that she sees the First Amendment of the United States — or the freedom of speech — as the “number one challenge.”
These speech protections, Maher continued, make it “tricky” to suppress “bad information” and the “influence peddlers who have made a real market economy around it.”
Maher’s confession has drawn the attention of prominent commenters, including X owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
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“This keeps getting crazier! The head of NPR hates the Constitution of the USA,” Musk commented while reposting Rufo’s video. Musk also said he wasn’t surprised about Wikipedia censoring certain information during U.S. elections and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Maher’s skepticism about the freedom of speech contrasts much with recent remarks by Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov, who reiterated that freedom of speech is Telegram’s top priority in an interview with Tucker Carlson on April 17.
Durov also claimed that he owns zero “big assets” like land or real estate and prefers owning Bitcoin (BTC) and cash because he cherishes his freedom and is focused on doing his best for Telegram.
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