He used to work for X. Here’s what he says is wrong about Musk’s stance on the mainstream media.

By Hadas Gold, CNN

(CNN) — “You are the media now.” Elon Musk’s repeated refrain on his popular social media platform X has been his way of urging his followers to ignore traditional journalism in favor of what he calls “citizen journalism.”

“I think the media is a driver of misinformation much more than the media would like to admit that they are,” Musk said in an interview with the BBC in 2023. “In a lot of cases, it is the average citizen that knows more than the journalist.”

A former communications chief for X thinks otherwise. He is speaking out for the first time in an exclusive interview with CNN and with a stern warning: Social media is not a replacement for journalism.

“The rhetoric around social platforms replacing journalism is not accurate or positive,” said Dave Heinzinger, who worked as the communications chief at X from December 2024 through March 2025. He said he left X for personal reasons and returned to his previous role as president of PR firm Haymaker.

Heinzinger’s comments stand in direct contrast to his former boss, who regularly denigrates the media, claiming the mainstream media “lies relentlessly” — even chiding his own AI chatbot Grok for giving “way too much credibility to legacy media sources.” Musk has largely dismantled his companies’ public relations teams, and they mostly shun reporters’ inquiries.

X has cycled through several top communications staff over the last couple of years, after Musk got rid of Twitter’s robust communications shop when he bought the platform in 2022. There were times when journalists seeking comment or information from the platform would get an autoreply of the “poop” emoji.

X did not respond to CNN’s request for comment on Heinzinger’s interview.

While Heinzinger said he believes there needs to be a “certain level of mutual respect between communications professionals and journalists,” he’s more concerned about the idea that the information deluge on social media is better than real journalism.

“Social media is not journalism. Social media platforms are a great place to do journalism, and there are fantastic journalists that are doing really great work on platforms, but the platforms themselves are not replacing the craft of journalism,” Heinzinger said. “The craft of journalism is different than sharing the raw feed.”

The raw feed, whether it be a video or a claim, can often be incomplete or sometimes completely false. Musk himself has been known to repost unsubstantiated claims, boosting them to his hundreds of millions of followers.

For example, last year Musk shared (and subsequently deleted) an image of a fake newspaper headline which parroted a conspiracy theory about the United Kingdom considering building “detainment camps” on the Falkland Islands for rioters, according to the BBC. With the rise in AI-generated video, events can easily be faked, further spreading misinformation.

Heinzinger declined to comment specifically on his time at X or Musk. But he said he’s felt compelled to speak out in the wake of recent events like Charlie Kirk’s assassination, in which rumors and claims spread widely on social media.

With “emotions flying,” it can be difficult “to understand what’s real and what’s not,” Heinzinger said. But that’s where trusted journalists come in.

“The craft is something special and important, and it might be more important than ever,” he said. “… That craft is something that we all need to step back and pay attention to.”

Heinzinger acknowledged that quality journalism may come from independent journalists rather than traditional newsrooms. But above all else, he believes helping the public understand media literacy — how to find and verify reliable sources of information and news — is a top priority. Platforms like X used to give journalists “verified” badges, but Heinzinger said he’s not sure the platforms should be the ones deciding who is trustworthy.

“I don’t think that we as people should rely on the platforms to police that,” he said. “As individuals, it’s up to us to make sure that we’re following folks that we trust, that we’re kind of curating our own feeds.”

The-CNN-Wire
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