NPR Elon Musk Feud Escalates To Musk Threatening To Give NPR Handle To Someone Else Emailing Publication You Suck

Last night, NPR CEO John Lansing said he's lost faith with "decision-making at Twitter" after reporting that Elon Musk is threatening to give the company's Twitter handle (@NPR) to another account unless the publication starts tweeting again.

After the news organization published that story, it then reported that Musk directly emailed the company with the subject line "You suck" and no text in the body.

Musk and National Public Radio began feuding in mid-April when Twitter designated NPR as "state-affiliated media," a label Twitter had applied to news outlets thought of as propaganda arms for autocratic countries, including China and Russia. In response, NPR declared they would no longer use Twitter.

When NPR journalist Bobby Allyn emailed Elon Musk for comment on NPR's stance, Musk tweeted the email to his millions of followers and declared "Defund @NPR."

Yesterday's report states that Musk emailed staff unprompted to ask if they should reassign the "@NPR" handle to another account due to NPR's inactivity on Twitter. Allyn asked Musk who would receive the NPR handle (with nearly 9 million followers) should he follow through with his threat, to which Musk wrote, "National Pumpkin Radio," "adding a fire emoji and a laughing emoji to describe the content of the fictional gourd-themed broadcaster."

Once NPR's report went live, it was updated hours later to include a response from Musk, who emailed Allyn to say "You suck."

According to NPR, the incident is in line with Musk's erratic leadership and combative relationship with the press, as Musk has also sent a scatological emoji to anyone emailing Twitter's press email and continually blamed the media for issues he sees with wokism in culture.