Organization Trends

The Twitter Files, Trump, and the Corporate Media’s King Kong Problem


During one scene in the 1976 King Kong remake, oil company executive Fred Wilson (played by actor Charles Grodin) is carting the creature away from his exotic home and has an exchange about the impact of it all with the heroine, Dwan (Jessica Lange), and stowaway paleontologist Jack Prescott (Jeff Bridges).

King Kong (1976) – We killed their God from Tom Secker on Vimeo.

The trio could have been speaking to the relationship between former President Donald Trump and the corporate media.

Fred Wilson: It’s not “someone.” It’s an animal, a beast who tried to rape you!

Dwan: That’s not true. He risked his life to save me.

Fred Wilson: He tried to rape you honey. And before you cry a lot, you should ask the natives on that island what they thought of losing Kong.

Jack Prescott: Actually, they’ll miss him a lot.

Fred Wilson: Like leprosy.

Jack Prescott: No, you’re dead wrong. He was the terror, the mystery of their lives, and the magic. A year from now that will be an island full of burnt-out drunks. When we took Kong, we kidnapped their god.

Among the most riveting revelations from the so-called “Twitter Files” was the discovery that the social media firm’s Orwellian content moderators actively tried to deamplify the content coming from President Trump during the 2020 election. This was long before their decision to cut him off completely after January 6, 2021.

Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter and performance as CEO has been the subject of heavy criticism from the corporate media. A primary attack against Musk’s willingness to release Old Twitter’s speech suppression discussions has been to claim nothing new has been revealed.

Well, try this on: We now know that as Old Twitter was trying to throttle Trump’s statements, many of the corporate media hacks now defending Old Twitter from New Twitter were hanging on and repeating (i.e.: amplifying) every crazy Trump statement that Old Twitter was trying desperately to quiet down.

In a sense, this too is old news. Trump is a media creation based in large measure on this outsized Twitter presence that the media couldn’t get enough of and profited mightily from. Even now, as he has been banished to alternative social media precincts, the corporate media has followed, still watching and amplifying whenever he acts out.

He is the terror, the mystery of their lives, and the magic. They’ll have a hard time adjusting when their god is gone.

Ken Braun

Ken Braun is CRC’s senior investigative researcher and authors profiles for InfluenceWatch.org and the Capital Research magazine. He previously worked for several free market policy organizations, spent six…
+ More by Ken Braun

Support Capital Research Center's award-winning journalism

Donate today to assist in promoting the principles of individual liberty in America.

Read Next