Media's glaring double standard exposed: Musk vilified while Dem senator gets a pass for identical gesture

Fox News

3 days ago

Elon Musk and Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., made similar gestures this year that were handled very differently by the press, according to a study conducted by the Media Research Center.
Musk was famously accused of doing the Nazi salute in January while celebrating President Donald Trump's inauguration at the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., when the Tesla mogul placed his hand over his heart and quickly extended it in a motion that alarmed liberal pundits. Booker made a similar gesture on Saturday when he capped off a speech to the California Democratic Party's convention by placing his right hand on his chest before raising it to the crowd.
When Musk made the motion, he told the crowd he wanted to thank Trump supporters "from my heart to yours," but many quickly accused Musk of the Nazi-era salute. When Booker did it, many conservatives took to social media to remind them that Musk's critics frowned upon the move, but their point was essentially disregarded by the press.
CNN, MSNBC and PBS spent 16 minutes and 17 seconds on the Musk ordeal in the week immediately following his gesture, according to the Media Research Center. The outlets found time to cover Musk during the midst of the inauguration as President Donald Trump made nonstop news with a bevy of executive orders.
Booker's similar gesture was completely ignored by CNN, MSNBC and PBS, along with the broadcast networks, according to the MRC.
ABC, NBC and CBS didn't cover either gesture, according to the MRC.
NewsBusters senior research analyst Bill D'Agostino, who conducted the MRC study, noted that pundits continued to cover Elon's "salute" long after the first week.
"Musk's salute has been brought up a total of 55 times on left-wing cable – CNN/MSNBC – and PBS, but only 22 of those occurred during the first week immediately following the incident," D'Agostino told Fox News Digital.
"The longest single discussion about it took place more than a month after the actual incident, on the February 23 edition of MSNBC's 'Velshi,' during a larger segment which solely focused on the question of whether Musk is, in fact, a crypto-Nazi," D'Agostino added. "Musk was rarely given the benefit of the doubt for the gesture."
D'Agostino found that much of the CNN and MSNBC coverage featured commentators or journalists calling it a "Nazi salute" or "Hitler salute."
"The vast majority were eager not only to describe it as such, but to draw connections between it and Musk's subsequent speech to Germany's AFD party," D'Agostino said.
"They're still talking about it," he added, noting that Democratic congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh even mentioned Musk's gesture this week on CNN.
Booker's team has attempted to downplay the similar hand gesture.
"Cory Booker was obviously just waving to the crowd. Anyone who claims his wave is the same as Elon Musk's gesture is operating in bad faith. The differences between the two are obvious to anyone without an agenda," a Booker spokesperson told Forbes.
Booker's office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
Heritage Foundation media fellow Tim Young told Fox News Digital he believes the ordeal is yet another "of the many instances where you see a clear media bias" against Republicans, as Musk was still tied to Trump when the incident occurred.
Musk and Trump have had a messy public spat this week, but it remains to be seen if that will improve Musk's standing in the anti-Trump media.