Ian Hislop praised for ‘perfect’ takedown of ‘contradiction-riddled’ Elon Musk
Jacob Stolworthy
Friday 10
January 2025
Ian Hislop has been praised for his takedown of Elon Musk after the controversial figure’s explosive row with Sir Keir Starmer.
On Wednesday (8 January), Have I Got News for You panelist Ian Hislop who edits satirical magazine Private Eye appeared on Andrew Marr’s LBC show and questioned Musk’s intrusion into UK politics.
“He’s riddled with contradictions, and at some point I am hoping
that even his followers will begin to notice that from sentence to sentence, he
makes no sense,” he said.
“So when you get Musk pretending to be a champion of women and
young girls, and then he calls Jess Phillips an ‘evil witch’ – I mean, how is
that on a scale of medieval misogyny?”
Hislop complained that “it’s impossible to avoid” Musk’s
misinformation as “he has enormous power” due to his wealth.
He also said that the X/Twitter owner’s reach
is helped by “people who have been persuaded over the past five years or so
that the mainstream media hasn’t covered any stories and that the only people
who have noticed anything happening in the world are people sitting in their
bedrooms and sending messages to each other”.
Hislop noted that reporters are currently
“spending half the time pointing out stories that aren’t true”.
“It’s an amazing feat of deception,” he told
Marr, adding that the troubles began when Musk called British diver Vernon
Unsworth - who aided in the rescue of a Thai soccer team and their coach from a
cave system in 2018 – a paedophile.
“I think he thought from then on, ‘I can say
anything I like, it doesn’t have to be true – it’s better if it’s not true –
and no one will stop me’, and that’s what’s happened,” Hislop said.
An additional fan of Hislop’s said he had “nailed it perfectly".