NTSB Defends Move to Elon Musk’s X Following Backlash: ‘This Is Not a Change In Policy!’
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) defended its move to ditch email updates for the press in favor of Elon Musk’s X as its primary platform for informing the media about major incidents.
Reporters covering aviation incidents like those in Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia will now rely on @NTSB_Newsroom for news conferences and investigative details.
“For media covering the airplane crashes in Washington and Philadelphia—all NTSB updates about news conferences or other investigative information will be posted to this X account. We will not be distributing information via email,” the agency announced Saturday in a post on X.
The move marks a departure from the NTSB’s previous practice of fielding media requests through email.
As the shift to reliance on a single, privately owned social media platform on Sunday raised questions about transparency the agency defended the move, stating that it was meant to “better manage the volume of” inquiries.
“The NTSB media relations team has always used Twitter/X to inform the media and public on the time and location of media briefings. We cannot respond to every email asking for the details of media briefings,” the agency said.
The decision lands amid a broader shake-up in government media access. The Pentagon, as NBC News reported, is evicting mainstream news organizations like The New York Times, NPR, and Politico from dedicated workstations in favor of a new “annual media rotation program” featuring right-leaning outlets like Breitbart, the New York Post, HuffPost and One America News Network.
