Anatomy of a non-scandal: the defence of Allison Pearson reveals how ‘free speech’ has been weaponised | Jane Martinson

Wed, 20 Nov 2024

The Telegraph journalist sent a deeply offensive and inaccurate tweet. Yet she has won the support of a swath of newspapers, an ex-PM – and Elon Musk

The Allison Pearson saga is nothing if not a morality tale about the modern media. Among its many learnings are that calling a group of people of colour holding a flag on social media “Jew haters” is likely to get you into trouble. Apparently, though, it can also make you best mates with the world’s richest man.

On Monday night, almost exactly a year after the Telegraph writer posted her response to a picture of police officers alongside two men holding a flag on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, she was offering her “huge thanks” to the site’s owner, Elon Musk, for his support. After he responded, she dubbed the billionaire with a powerful new job in the US government her “new bestie ♥️” in a post to her 191,500 followers, including, in her words, “hundreds of black and Asian followers”.

Jane Martinson is a Guardian columnist

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