Vice isn’t historically known for its rock-solid journalism. It’s a click-bait garbage website that was created, as a click-bait garbage. It was an invention of a couple of provocateurs Gavin McInnes and Shane Smith to boldly go, where they knew they would get clicks. Like a bathroom stall. In the early days of Vice, when Smith and McInnes owned it, they famously sat in a bathroom stall reading their own magazine. It was a fitting image.
According to the Intelligencer:
Vice had grown from a free magazine to a company with 3,000 employees spread across a cable network, more than a dozen websites, two shows on HBO, an ad agency, a film studio, a record label, and a bar in London. Vice had become the tenth-highest-valued private company in America, according to CB Insights, at a valuation of $5.7 billion, and as recently as 2016, Smith had told The Wall Street Journal that by the end of the decade, Vice could be worth $50 billion.
It is loaded with provocative content intent on drawing eyes – even when its unverified and, reportedly a lie.
In Tuesday’s edition of Vice, Michael Champion wrote the following headline: “Elon Musk Spoke to Putin Before Tweeting Ukraine Peace Plan: Report”
Big, if true. But is it?
In the article, Champion claims:
In a mailout sent to Eurasia Group subscribers, Ian Bremmer wrote that Tesla CEO Musk told him that Putin was “prepared to negotiate,” but only if Crimea remained Russian, if Ukraine accepted a form of permanent neutrality, and Ukraine recognised Russia’s annexation of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
That claim was surprising to Elon Musk who responded on Twitter: His response. “No, I did not speak with Putin”
Since Vice is a mega-media corporation, one would think a crack reporter like Michael Champion would have championed journalism and called Musk for comment. The article ends with a claim that Vice did call Tesla and Musk for comment. It doesn’t mention what the result was. Maybe Champion called the front desk, asked to speak with Musk, and when the receptionist asked why Champion said hung up. I don’t know. But Musk has denied the call with Putin happened so, maybe Vice will update the article? Maybe not.
Smearing Musk is the latest “thing” in media and particularly on Twitter. Musk has gotten the middle finger from Ukrainians from the president to diplomats telling him to “F*** off” for having the nerve to want peace and, potentially, avoid a nuclear weapons exchange.
Musk has deployed Starlink for use for the Ukrainian army and has repeatedly said he is “pro-Ukrainian”. But that is generally not enough for the clowns who inhabit Twitter or in Ukrainian leadership.
Yes, Putin is a bad man. A very bad man, but peace will come at some point and sane people want it sooner than later.