How Elon Musk and the ‘very worst among us’ are ruining the public square

My San Francisco Chronicle column on a great editorial cartoonist and the great-in-his-head Elon Musk

Elon Musk, meet Marc Murphy.

I’m quite certain you’ve never met Marc Murphy. But you will now.

You see, Murphy is an influential political cartoonist in Kentucky, where they aren’t inclined to mince words. Not only that, Murphy is a law professor at the University of Louisville. He’s an Army veteran, a former prosecutor and, unlike Musk, courageous.

A few years ago, Murphy had 30,000 followers on Musk’s dreadful hate-spewing platform, X (nee Twitter). Murphy, being courageous, was and is drawing cartoons as a freelancer for the Louisville Courier-Journal. As Musk is well aware, X is the stage for crazy right-wing garbage that he openly encourages and promotes.

Murphy, being the hard-hitting commentator that he is, doesn’t hesitate at the plate. He slugs it out of the park in Kentucky four days per week, while he engages in the practice of law and being a professor. 

If I were giving out Pulitzer Prizes for sheer local impact, Murphy would be an obvious choice.

So how did Musk, the hypocritical free speech poseur that he is, treat Murphy?

He shut down Murphy’s X account for nebulous reasons. Oh, you know, violating the terms of service, or some other B.S. like that. Of course, his buddy former President Donald Trump, a felonious mendicant and Twier poster boy, would say stuff six times per day that violated Musk’s vague terms of service.

What did Murphy do? Well, being the tenacious advocate of the First Amendment, he started a new X account.

Until a few days ago, he had 1,300 followers on this open sewer of a platform. That’s about a 95% decrease. 

Murphy drew a cartoon the other day about Sonya Massey, a Black tax-paying resident of Springfield, Ill., which you may recall, is the home of President Abraham Lincoln, who signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. 

Massey reported a prowler, and Sangamon County Sheriff’s deputies responded. Upon their fateful arrival, Deputy Sean Grayson told her to move a pot of boiling water from her stove, because, for some reason, he thought it was a fire hazard.

Note Massey didn’t call the Springfield Fire Department. Not sure what kind of fire hazard the deputy thought a pot of boiling water might pose as they responded to a prowler call, and she was cooperating fully, even saying she loved them for coming.

When Massey followed this ridiculous, non sequitur order, Deputy Grayson shot and killed her. He also didn’t want Massey, a mother of two, to get medical attention.

The community and the nation responded with outrage but, hey, that’s just another day at the office for Black Americans, who are shot and killed routinely by poorly-trained police. 

Murphy also responded with outrage and drew a cartoon about the incident. He then posted it on X.

Murphy isn’t quite certain what algorithm he violated by criticizing the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office, which, incidentally and correctly, fired Grayson, yet another trigger-happy police officer who killed a Black American for no obvious reason.

Murphy thinks the usual MAGA suspects in Kentucky reported this truth-telling, but he’s not quite sure who. Murphy has had a target on his back for years in Louisville for doing what a political cartoonist should do: expose hypocrisy and hold accountable the powers that be. 

Murphy thinks it was probably “Christian nationalists and the supremacists, and the Liberty Republicans in Kentucky.” 

“Liberty Republicans” are a powerful MAGA cult (oxymoron) in Kentucky.

In the paraphrased words of normal former Republican President, George W. Bush, “They hate freedom.”

So Musk took down Murphy’s X account again, with no recourse. 

Let’s review: Musk tweets and retweets all sorts of asinine drivel, all far right-wing of course, because the native South African apparently wants to make Pretoria Great Again.

This week, Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has handled Musk like the live hand grenade that he is, called out Musk’s tweet featuring Vice President Kamala Harris’ AI-doctored voice saying something she did not say. At all. Not remotely.

Newsom responded by saying he was going to support legislation in California banning deep fake impersonations in political content. How did Apartheid Boy respond?

He tweeted (X’d?) this bon mot back at Newsom:

“I checked with renowned world authority, Professor Suggon Deeznutz, and he said parody is legal in America.”

Hey, thanks, 12-year-old with 233.8 billion bucks.

Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar noted that Musk violated his own terms of service, which reads, in part, that any “synthetic, manipulated or out-of-context media that may deceive or confuse people and lead to harm” is prohibited. 

Klobuchar, who is undeniably nice, since she’s from Minnesota, said in a tweet that Musk will be “unleashing an entire election season of fake AI voice and image-altered content with no limits, regardless of party.”

Note also that Musk’s damaged brand had also taken down the new “White Dudes for Harris” account and brought it back seven hours later.

Hmm. A pattern emerges.

What does Murphy have to say?

“I mourn the loss of what was a functioning and very interesting public square enterprise … I mourn the loss because it was ruined, on purpose, by the very worst among us for a very specific reason.

“I don’t know that (Musk) himself is a fascist, but he enables fascists.”

Great trial lawyers like Marc Murphy are good at summations. 

Jack Ohman is a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist and columnist who also writes at jackohman.substack. 

Since you’re here, who do you think Harris is going to pick, and who do you want her to pick for VP?

Jack Note: It’s going to be a busy week for me this week, so look for lots of content. If Walz is selected, I will write about my experience working as a campaign aide for a Democratic (DFL) congressional candidate from MN-1, which is Walz’s old district, and what it was like in 1976 in Minnesota when Fritz Mondale was selected as Jimmy Carter’s running mate—I was there, working as a flunky in a Minnesota state House race. You betcha, indeed! Also, please consider a paid subscription, as Substack is becoming my main source of income…and growing, thanks to you!—J.