The New York Times raised questions about President Joe Biden's mental fitness after the bombshell special report explaining why there would be no criminal charges against Biden for unlawful possession of documents. Special counsel Robert Hur wrote, "Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview with him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."

        This Times coverage about Biden's mental fitness prompted former New York Times public editor Margaret Sullivan to write:

        "Is there no one at these major outlets who is capable of taking a step back and exercising some judgment?

        "How about a note from New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger to two key people who report to him directly -- the opinion editor and the top newsroom editor -- that goes something like this: 'Katie and Joe, I'm concerned that we're going overboard with both coverage and commentary about Biden's age. Let's keep this in better perspective and tone it down.' Believe me, those two sentences would make a world of difference."

        In other words, note to the legacy media, particularly to the influential New York Times, "Back off! Circle the wagons!"

        This elevates the importance of outlets like the Elon Musk-owned X, formerly known as Twitter. Musk uncovered the extent to which Twitter suppressed posts of conservatives, suppressed posts questioning the then-conventional wisdom of the COVID vaccine, masking and shutdowns, and even briefly shut down the New York Post's account for its reporting on the Hunter Biden laptop story.

        When Musk bought Twitter, things changed immediately. Conservatives saw a quick and substantial uptick in followers. But, since then, many conservatives say they experience pre-Musk sluggish growth. So, I recently posted on X the following:

        "Dear @elonmusk,

        "I can't be the only one? I believe conservatives are STILL being suppressed -- and that new followers are only painstakingly added -- because of the anti-conservative, anti-Trump hostility of your deep state Twitter employees. This is a shout out to other conservatives/libertarians on your platform, please tell me if you've ALSO experienced the same sluggish growth in new followers, a stark contrast from what happened when Musk first took over when I -- and many other conservatives -- had an explosion of new followers. Please comment!"

        The comments were fast and furious:

        -- "I think people are afraid Big Brother is watching."

        -- "Larry is correct, @elonmusk. #throttled."

        -- " I agree, my new followers have slowed down. I was sent a message that my tweets would be made less visible because of the content I was posting. Twitter felt I was trying to manipulate others. I asked for a review, but no response -- nothing has changed."

        -- "I agree. Mine have slowed down, lost followers, etc."

        -- "Yeah, I assume that there is a slew of typical San Franciscans still working at X and doing what they can to sabotage conservatives every way they can."

        -- "I've had a surge in followers, but they've suspended me from following back 3 days and some limitations on what I can like. I got tired of this during the last election and closed my account and came back thinking things were fixed. They said it's an algorithm issue."

        -- "Looks like Mr. Musk needs to clean house again!"

        -- "Dead right. Elon still has some house cleaning to do -- and it won't happen with the current commie CEO." (This refers to the hiring of former NBCUniversal advertising chief Linda Yaccarino.)

        -- "Yep. As soon as he put that liberal woman in charge, it went almost right back to what it was pre-Elon."

        -- "Been saying this for quite a while now... it's pretty obvious at times..."

        -- "I feel the same way. Can't tell if anyone even sees my posts most of the time."

        -- "I'm still constantly being told that other people wouldn't say what I have to say. I thought Elon was for free speech. Free speech tends to be things that other people wouldn't say."

        -- "Yep! VERY SLOW GROW, if any at all."

        -- "My numbers never change."

        -- "I was banned under old regime and reinstated but definitely receive zero feedback on posts. Still shadow banned for sure."

        Bottom line, Mr. Musk, a lot of conservatives still detect a serious deep state problem at X, a platform we need now more than ever.
        

Larry Elder is a bestselling author and nationally syndicated radio talk-show host. To find out more about Larry Elder, or become an "Elderado," visit www.LarryElder.com. Follow Larry on Twitter @larryelder. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.