Fact Check: About That News Column Calling Elon Musk a 'Mediocre White Man'
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Claim:
An X user posted a screenshot of a legitimate news opinion column in March 2024 that referred to Elon Musk as a "mediocre white man."
Rating:
On March 21, 2024, the X (formerly Twitter) account @EndWokeness uploaded a screenshot purportedly showing the headline of a Yahoo News Op-Ed (opinion column) that called Elon Musk, owner of X (formerly Twitter), a "mediocre white man" (archived here).
The screengrab allegedly showed columnist Michael Harriot wrote the article. It contained a picture of Elon Musk during a March 18 interview with former CNN host Don Lemon. The headline read:
Don Lemon interviewed a mediocre white man
Other X users replied to the post asking whether the article was real, while some were certain it was not.
Is this real
— Connie Caston (@ConnieCaston) March 21, 2024
However, the opinion piece was real, and so we have rated this "True." It was published on March 20, 2024.
An editor's note at the top of the article expressed how the article was an opinion column, and that the views expressed in it were the author's own.
Sources:
'Don Lemon Interviewed a Mediocre White Man'. Yahoo News, 20 Mar. 2024, https://www.yahoo.com/news/don-lemon-interviewed-mediocre-white-173142498.html.
Elon Musk on Racism, Bailing Out Trump, Hate Speech, and More - The Don Lemon Show (Full Interview). www.youtube.com, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhsfjBpKiTw. Accessed 21 Mar. 2024.
Harriot, Michael. 'Don Lemon Interviewed a Mediocre White Man'. TheGrio, 20 Mar. 2024, https://thegrio.com/2024/03/20/don-lemon-interviewed-a-mediocre-white-man/.
