Elon Musk accuses media of racism after newspapers drop ‘Dilbert’ cartoon

Billionaire Elon Musk on Sunday accused the media of being racist against whites and Asians after US newspapers removed a white comic strip writer who made disparaging comments about black Americans.

The Los Angeles Times, Washington Post and USA Today were among the newspapers that canceled the cartoon “Dilbert” after its creator, Scott Adams, said that Black Americans were a hate group and on his YouTube channel on Wednesday Posted racist comments.

In response to tweets about the controversy, the CEO of Tesla and Twitter said the media had long been racist against non-white people, but is now “racist against whites and Asians”.

Musk tweeted, “Maybe they can try not to be racist.”

In response to an account that white victims of police violence receive a fraction of the media coverage compared to black victims, Musk said the coverage was “grossly disproportionate to promoting a false narrative.”

Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Musk’s views on social issues have been on the rise since he took to Twitter in October.

He has drawn controversy with civil rights groups over Twitter’s level of protection against hate content and the reinstatement of some previously suspended accounts. Some advertisers have left the platform over concerns about brand safety, and Twitter has introduced some new controls for ad placement.

Musk’s latest tweets come after the Dilbert producer suggested white Americans “get the hell off black people.” Adams, the cartoonist, was responding to a poll by the conservative Rasmussen Reports that 26% of black respondents said they disagreed with the statement that “it’s okay to be white.”

The Plain Dealer newspaper in Ohio told its readers on Friday that the move to pull the cartoon was “not a difficult decision”.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)