{"id":27519,"date":"2025-05-10T09:00:27","date_gmt":"2025-05-10T09:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=27519"},"modified":"2025-05-10T09:23:14","modified_gmt":"2025-05-10T09:23:14","slug":"elon-musks-use-of-x-mimics-hearsts-and-fords-manipulation-of-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=27519","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk\u2019s Use of X Mimics Hearst\u2019s and Ford\u2019s Manipulation of Media"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An entrepreneur who revolutionized the automobile business decides he now needs to change how the world thinks, so he buys a media property to use as a megaphone. His rants validate many people\u2019s worst impulses while also encouraging enemies of democracy around the world.<\/p>\n

This sounds like Elon Musk<\/a> and his social media site X in 2025, but it was also Henry Ford and his paper, The Dearborn Independent, in the 1920s. Ford, the inventor of the Model T, bought a suburban weekly and remade it to push his antisemitic views. The Dearborn Independent published a long-running series called \u201cThe International Jew,\u201d which blamed Jews for the world\u2019s ills, and publicized \u201cThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion,\u201d a hoax document. The Nazis gave Ford a medal.<\/p>\n

Ford was perhaps the most blatant example in a long tradition of moguls who bought media platforms and then used them to promote odious views. These tycoons often used the latest in technology to reach the widest audience, whether it was high-speed newspaper presses or, in Ford\u2019s case, his network of car dealerships.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Drive off in your new Model T and there would be The Dearborn Independent on the seat<\/a>. Newspapers at the time were local businesses. With the dealerships, The Dearborn Independent became one of the highest-circulated papers in the country, printing more than 750,000 copies of each issue at its peak.<\/p>\n

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After Henry Ford bought The Dearborn Independent, it published a long-running series called \u201cThe International Jew,\u201d which repeated antisemitic tropes and blamed Jews for the world\u2019s ills.<\/span>Library of Congress<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The biggest difference between Ford and other media titans like <\/span>Rupert Murdoch<\/a> was that the latter generally promoted their views by hiring like-minded editors and anchors. The Dearborn Independent announced on its cover that it was the \u201cFord International Weekly,\u201d and it included a full-page editorial signed by Ford.<\/p>\n

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An entrepreneur who revolutionized the automobile business decides he now needs to change how the world thinks, so he buys a media property to use as a megaphone. His rants validate many people\u2019s worst impulses while also encouraging enemies of democracy around the world.This sounds like Elon Musk and his social media site X in 2025, but it was also Henry Ford and his paper, The Dearborn Independent, in the 1920s. Ford, the inventor of the Model T, bought a suburban weekly and remade it to push his antisemitic views. The Dearborn Independent published a long-running series called \u201cThe International Jew,\u201d which blamed Jews for the world\u2019s ills, and publicized \u201cThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion,\u201d a hoax document. The Nazis gave Ford a medal.Ford was perhaps the most blatant example in a long tradition of moguls who bought media platforms and then used them to promote odious views. These tycoons often used the latest in technology to reach the widest audience, whether it was high-speed newspaper presses or, in Ford\u2019s case, his network of car dealerships.Drive off in your new Model T and there would be The Dearborn Independent on the seat. Newspapers at the time were local businesses. With the dealerships, The Dearborn Independent became one of the highest-circulated papers in the country, printing more than 750,000 copies of each issue at its peak.After Henry Ford bought The Dearborn Independent, it published a long-running series called \u201cThe International Jew,\u201d which repeated antisemitic tropes and blamed Jews for the world\u2019s ills.Library of CongressThe biggest difference between Ford and other media titans like Rupert Murdoch was that the latter generally promoted their views by hiring like-minded editors and anchors. The Dearborn Independent announced on its cover that it was the \u201cFord International Weekly,\u201d and it included a full-page editorial signed by Ford.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27521,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27519"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27522,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27519\/revisions\/27522"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}