Turley To Debate Liberal Professor On ZeroHedge: Free Speech, Musk, And X

Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter in late 2022 caused a media shit storm with calls for imminent bankruptcy, the infamous ADL shakedown, and disinformation alarm bells in the beltway think tank community.

Duking it out two years after the acquisition will be George Washington Professors Jonathan Turley and David Karpf. Each will join moderator Gene Epstein, director of The SoHo Forum, for a 90-minute debate broadcast live to the ZeroHedge homepage.

On the docket will be free speech, censorship, disinformation, and the government’s proper role in all this. The resolution: Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter was a net positive for society. 

Turley for the affirmative will be making the free speech absolutist’s case in favor of Musk’s management style. The professor has lauded Musk as “the most consequential figure in free speech of our generation”:

Jonathan Turley on Elon Musk’s firm stance for free speech:

“Love him or hate him, Elon Musk is, without question, the most consequential figure in free speech of our generation. I think he has done more for free speech than any living person today.

In some ways, he actually… pic.twitter.com/Fz9OFa5yzl

— ELON FACTS (@ElonFactsX) December 5, 2024

A long-time 1A bull, Turley recently authored The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.

The Anti-Elon case:

Karpf — no longer on X — posted to “Substack Notes” that Musk had broken election law and committed “glaring violations” of Federal Trade Commission (FTC) consent law. Karpf referred to him as a “ketamine-addled chump” and predicted in March of 2023 that X/Twitter would be bankrupt within 6 months.

“Musk offered to buy Twitter on a (drug-addled) lark… Zombie Twitter will stumble along at a financial loss until Elon can find a villain to hang its failure on. “

FTC head Lina Khan was accused by Rep. Jim Jordan and the House Judiciary Committee of “blatant political harassment of Musk and Twitter” when Khan’s agency appeared to fast-track a probe into the billionaire and his new company immediately following his acquisition.

In this evening’s debate, Karpf will be arguing that Musk’s purchase and management style of Twitter has been a net negative for society.

Tune in live on the top of the ZeroHedge homepage and our X, YouTube, and Rumble accounts tonight at 7pm ET.