NBC News Reporter Ben Collins ‘Temporarily Pulled’ From Covering Musk and Twitter Over His Own Tweets

NBC News senior reporter Ben Collins, who covers tech and misinformation, has been “temporarily pulled” from covering one of the hottest current stories in tech news: Elon Musk and his controversial management of Twitter.

Thursday evening, Twitter suspended multiple reporters in what Mediaite and many other media observers dubbed the “Thursday Night Massacre,” including CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, the Washington Post’s Drew Harwell, the New York Times’ Ryan Mac, Mashable’s Matt Binder, and political video influencer Aaron Rupar, over Musk’s accusations that they had engaged in “doxxing” by posting “my exact real-time location, basically assassination coordinates, in (obvious) direct violation of Twitter terms of service.”

As O’Sullivan and the other suspended journalists repeatedly argued, however, their reporting was accurate and had not constituted “real-time” disclosure of Musk’s location.

On Friday, Semafor’s Max Tani reported that NBC News had “benched” Collins from covering Musk because of his harsh criticism of the social media platform’s new owner:

NBC News had already benched one of the journalists who has reported on Twitter and been harshly critical of Musk. NBC News temporarily suspended tech reporter Ben Collins from covering Musk on NBC and MSNBC airwaves. According to two sources, the network told Collins earlier this month that his criticism of Musk, which included mocking the billionaire’s ignorance about the company’s general counsel, was not editorially appropriate. Collins continued to tweet his reporting about Twitter last night about the social network’s ban of journalists.

NBC News declined to comment on personnel matters when reached by Mediaite, and Collins also declined to comment. A source familiar with the discussions confirmed that the decision to take Collins off the Musk/Twitter beat happened earlier this month, when Collins was “temporarily pulled” from covering that particular story on air.

Like other news organizations, NBC News and MSNBC have guidelines for reporters expressing their personal opinions publicly. The source told Mediaite that Collins’ Twitter commentary on Musk violated those guidelines, and he was pulled from the air after being repeatedly warned about the issue.

Collins has been a frequent commentator on the Twitter takeover, voicing skepticism about Musk’s decision making and strategic moves, like in this Oct. 30 tweet:

Other reporters have defended Collins, like Mother Jones’ Ali Breland, who argued Collins’ tweets only appeared to be mocking Musk “because [E]lon does such absurd things that sometimes just restating them sounds like you’re mocking him.”

Another source familiar with the discussions within NBCUniversal confirmed that the restriction on Collins’ coverage was not just for the NBC and MSNBC television airwaves, but also for his written work published on NBCNews.com. A review of Collins’ article archive on the NBC News website shows he typically publishes a new article every few days (either under his byline or listed as a contributor to the reporting), and that he last reported directly on Musk on Nov. 15 and on Twitter generally on Nov. 16.

Late Thursday night, in a Twitter Space held by Buzzfeed’s Katie Notopoulos, Ben Collins was one of a number of reporters participating in a discussion of the suspension of journalists earlier that evening. To the amusement of many participating in the Twitter Space, users with the suspended accounts were still able to join the Space and even speak. No one could follow the suspended accounts, but they could participate the entire time.

Below are screenshots I took of Binder’s profile when I attempted to click “follow” and Harwell’s profile showing his profile pic highlighted in purple while he was speaking during the Space.

Screenshot via Twitter.

Screenshot via Twitter.

Another suspended user who participated in the Space was Jack Sweeney, the Florida college student who ran the @ElonJet account (also suspended).

The conversation was — unsurprisingly — largely critical of Musk’s decision, with Collins and former CNN chief media correspondent Brian Stelter among those who weighed in to blast what they viewed as the “Chief Twit’s” hypocrisy over advocating for free speech while banning journalists from his platform for reporting on him.

The sole exceptions to the roasting of Musk were Jason Calacanis, the venture capitalist who briefly worked at Twitter post-Musk takeover, repeatedly berating Sweeney and Harwell on what they would think if one of their family members was hurt because someone posted their locations online, and, for about two-and-a-half stunning minutes, Musk himself.

Musk stuck to his line about doxxing and when Harwell challenged him on the facts, arguing that he had not shared Musk’s address and his reporting did not constitute doxxing, Musk abruptly left the Space.

Less than half an hour after Musk left, the Space was shut down.

Notopoulos tweeted that the Space “went suddenly blank on my end and everyone got booted,” and that the recording of it was “strangely not available, funny that!”

Not too long after that, the functionality of Spaces was disabled for the entire Twitter app.

https://twitter.com/madhurchadha/status/1603674424103747584?s=20&t=uTYVdKsEOO2vQpWnr4Xkew

As for Collins, he seems cognizant of the fact he might soon join the other reporters on Musk’s excommunication list, posting links to accounts on other platforms and if he “get[s] sent upstate to live on a farm with all of the other posters you love,” urging his followers to protect a parody account that quotes Tim Allen’s Home Improvement character.

Collins has continued to tweet and retweet posts critical of Musk throughout the day Friday, and then offered a single emoji heart as an apparent message of thanks to his supporters.

This post has been updated with additional information.