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NTSB forces reporters to get plane crash updates on X

The agency says it will no longer notify reporters about plane crash press briefings via email.

The agency says it will no longer notify reporters about plane crash press briefings via email.

NTSB investigative panel meeting.
(Photo via Wikimedia Commons)

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on Saturday said it will stop e-mailing news organizations and reporters with updates about two plane crashes that occurred earlier this week.

Moving forward, the federal agency tasked with investigating transportation-related accidents and disasters said news organizations and reporters will have to follow the agency’s official account on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, where “all NTSB updates about news conferences or other investigative information” will be posted moving forward.



The NTSB did not say why it was choosing to post information about public safety matters exclusively on X, a private social media platform owned by technology mogul Elon Musk, who has curried favor with President Donald Trump in recent weeks. The Desk has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the government agency to learn more about the NTSB’s decision-making process in moving updates to the news media exclusively to X.

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Screen capture of NTSB tweet.
(Screen capture by The Desk)

Trump has frequently targeted the news media as a whole, criticizing outlets that have covered him in an unflattering light. He recently settled a lawsuit with ABC News over comments made during the political affairs program “This Week” that he considered to be disparaging, and has a pending lawsuit against CBS News over the network’s interview with Vice President Kamala Harris on “60 Minutes” last year.

On Friday, the Department of Defense announced it would evict four news organizations — NBC News, the New York Times, NPR and Politico — from leased offices within the Pentagon. The office space will be turned over to four other organizations — Breitbart News radio, the Huffington Post, One America News Network and the New York Post — some of which have curried favor with Trump and his political allies in recent times. (The Huffington Post is owned by BuzzFeed, which counts Trump ally Vivek Ramaswamy among their minority owners.)



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About the Author:

Matthew Keys

Matthew Keys is a nationally-recognized, award-winning journalist who has covered the business of media, technology, radio and television for more than 11 years. He is the publisher of The Desk and contributes to Know Techie, Digital Content Next and StreamTV Insider. He previously worked for Thomson Reuters, the Walt Disney Company, McNaughton Newspapers and Tribune Broadcasting. Connect with Matthew on LinkedIn by clicking or tapping here.
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