Scott Jennings left a fellow CNN panelist speechless after he claimed X is the most ideologically balanced social media platform – and backed it up with one of the left-leaning network’s own reports.
“I saw a survey this week – it’s [X] now the most ideologically balanced user platform of any platform,” Jennings said during CNN NewsNight on Monday.
CNN panelist and television personality Cari Champion shot back: “You cannot say that.”
“Who’s your source?” she demanded as the network’s panelists talked over one another.
Jennings exclaimed: “We’ve reported it on this network!”
The week before, CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten had discussed survey findings from the Pew Research Center that found billionaire Elon Musk’s X userbase has grown more politically balanced – though the platform has lost users and Musk himself has grown less favorable.
The social media platform’s userbase is a nearly even split between 48% of Democrat users and 47% of Republican users, according to the data. In 2022, a 65% majority of the platform’s users had identified as Democrats, Enten said.
After Jennings claimed the platform was balanced, Champion said, “It’s not accurate and you know it.”
The debate ensued after panelists compared Elon Musk’s acquisition of X to governments purchasing media outlets to use as propaganda.
Musk, the richest person in the world with a net worth of $329.9 billion according to Forbes, acquired the social media company, formerly known as Twitter, for $44 billion in 2022. He has since taken heat for deregulating across the site, which resulted in racist and antisemitic posts popping up alongside paid advertisements as well as misinformation.
“Is the concern that certain media outlets would become propaganda arms of political ideologies?” Jennings asked. “I mean, don’t we already have that in this country at a large scale?”
Champion argued in favor of more regulation on Musk’s platform.
“No one’s regulating the n-word, no one’s regulating the criticism, no one is regulating how people are treated,” Champion said.
Jennings questioned where Champion would draw the line on limiting the First Amendment.
“Let me tell you something, if I came on here and I just started calling you all kinds of names, do you think the bosses would continue to let me do that?” Champion said. “There’s a level of professionalism in what we do here because we are journalists and we adhere to something, at least morally, and there is no moral compass on this thing called X.”