Elon Musk has no power to put anyone in jail, but his fantasy about a “long prison sentence” for “60 Minutes” reporters is dangerous nonetheless.

If you want to know why, just ask Elon Musk.

He has repeatedly (and correctly) posted that “free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy.” In fact, those were among his first words when he took control of Twitter, now X.

Musk has described himself as a “free speech absolutist.” He has decried speech restrictions in other countries. Yet his recent statements about the American media contradict his self-image.

In a few short weeks, Musk has become the most vicious media-basher of the Trump administration, sometimes going even further than President Trump has.

He has attacked a Wall Street Journal journalist who broke news about a DOGE staffer’s racist and eugenic remarks, saying the journalist should be “fired immediately.” He has argued that taxpayer-funded media outlets like Radio Free Europe should be shut down, disparaging the workers as “radical left crazy people.” And he has pushed conspiracy theories about media outlets committing “crimes” without any specifics.

Musk’s posts matter because he has the attention and affection of millions. When he makes statements that are antithetical to American values, some of his fans feel emboldened to do the same.

Notably, though, when he assailed “60 Minutes” in an anti-democratic tirade Sunday night, scores of usually Musk-friendly followers replied to him with criticism, pointing out his past promotion of “free speech” and accusing him of hypocrisy.

A representative for Musk did not respond to a request for comment.

Musk vs. “60 Minutes”

A production of CBS News, “60 Minutes” is the most-watched newsmagazine on American TV. Trump is currently suing CBS and its parent company Paramount Global over the program’s interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris last fall. Trump claims CBS doctored the interview to help Harris beat him in the election; CBS denies the charge, and legal experts interviewed by CNN say the suit is a frivolous attempt to intimidate the network and the wider news media.

On Sunday night “60 Minutes” led off its broadcast with correspondent Scott Pelley’s report about Trump’s first four weeks, with a focus on USAID and the human impact of DOGE’s dismantling of the department.

The newsmagazine said Musk and DOGE did not respond to requests for interviews.

But after the report aired, Musk replied to a “60 Minutes” tweet, seemingly in a bid to discredit the reporting.

“60 Minutes are the biggest liars in the world! They engaged in deliberate deception to interfere with the last election,” Musk wrote, alluding to that Harris interview. “They deserve a long prison sentence.”

Musk didn’t back up his assertions. He can’t, because there is no evidence that CBS ran interference for Harris. On the contrary, there is ample evidence that CBS asked her tough questions; engaged in standard editing practices; and aired a hard-hitting interview.

Musk has first-hand experience with “60 Minutes.” In a 2018 interview with correspondent Lesley Stahl, years before he actually acquired Twitter, Musk said “I use my tweets to express myself. Some people use their hair. I use Twitter.”

So do many others – but Musk is now in a unique position, not only as the richest man in the world, but as a special government employee in the Trump administration.

Musk vs. free speech

By positioning himself as Mr. Free Speech, but then proclaiming that disfavored journalists “deserve” to be jailed, Musk is lending credence to those who say he doesn’t truly care about democracy, he values only oligarchy.

His prison post prompted Aaron Terr, director of public advocacy at The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, to write to Musk, “Throwing journalists in jail over their reporting is what authoritarian governments do in countries like China, Russia, and Iran. Here in the US, you’ll have to settle for using your enormous public platform to criticize the media. As you’ve been doing. You know, counterspeech.”

This is not the first time Musk has encouraged prosecutions of people he dislikes. He has publicly hoped for criminal action against companies that “boycotted” X and asserted that a nonprofit group “should be prosecuted for interference in US elections by a foreign entity.”

Those posts last year led to an initial round of criticism that he wasn’t living up to his “free speech absolutist” posture.

President Trump and Vice President JD Vance have come under similar scrutiny. Last month Trump signed several executive orders policing language at the same time he signed one titled “Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship.”

“Conservatives who just moments ago abhorred any form of censorship are now 100% chill with the government banning words,” USA Today national columnist Rex Huppke wrote last weekend.

In a high-profile speech in Munich, Germany last week, Vance accused European allies of censoring free speech at roughly the same time the Trump administration was banning The Associated Press from attending Trump Q&As and photo ops.

When progressive commentator Mehdi Hasan pointed this out on Monday, Vance replied on X; called Hasan a “dummy”; and said “I think there’s a difference between not giving a reporter a seat in the WH press briefing room and jailing people for dissenting views. The latter is a threat to free speech, the former is not. Hope that helps!”

Hasan pointed out that Musk “just called for a ‘long prison sentence’ for CBS journalists, for edits he didn’t like. Did you not get the memo?” Vance did not engage further.

A CBS spokesperson declined to comment on Musk’s provocation.

Musk arguably gets a pass, much of the time, because he posts so darn much. On Monday he tweeted more than 94 times and retweeted others at least another 36 times.

He posted until 4:15 a.m. in the morning and picked back up at 9:21 a.m., then went straight through until midnight. Among other topics, he made sweeping and unsupported claims about Social Security fraud; shared a post that baselessly accused actor Tom Hanks of committing crimes against children; and promoted his AI startup’s newest chatbot model.

“Some of the things that I say will be incorrect,” Musk told reporters in the Oval Office last week. “We are moving fast, so we will make mistakes, but we will fix the mistakes very quickly.”