Since Twitter currently lacks a communications or PR department, it's not surprising that a BBC reporter just showed up at Twitter HQ after a casual and likely insincere invitation and corralled Elon Musk into a new interview.

Musk may not believe in the power of public relations, or he feels immune to the dangers of living without it because he's just that kind of billionaire. But a good PR person likely would have deflected some of the questions posed by a BBC reporter and kept some of these further negative headlines from spilling forth, had Musk hired one.

After a few days of not-great stories about Twitter, and while Musk is engaging in an ongoing war with NPR — apparently for no good reason — Musk seemingly got ambushed by a BBC reporter with a camera crew on Tuesday. Though, in true Musk fashion, he seems to be embracing it and reposting clips of the interview to Twitter himself — along with a retweet of a meme asking "Do you like BBC?" with Yes and No buttons. And, to be clear, the clip Musk seems to want to focus on is one in which he pushes back against the reporter about how much hate-speech or hateful content he personally is seeing on the platform.

"What hate speech are you talking about? You use Twitter. Do you see more hate speech? Because I don't, personally," says the man surrounded by a bubble of fawning followers, who has likely been shielded from much of the worst of Twitter behavior for years.

Musk then got testy with the reporter, James Clayton, saying, "You can’t give a single example of hateful content, not even one tweet, and yet you claimed that the hateful content was high. That’s false. You just lied." That's the quote that's been leapt upon by conservative media like the National Review, which ran the headline "Elon Musk Torches BBC Reporter."

San Diego's Institute for Strategic Dialogue responded on Twitter with some examples of white supremacist accounts being "verified," and noted the sharp uptick in antisemitic speech on the platform last year. But if Musk isn't seeing it in his feed!

Also, unshockingly, his fanboys on the right are cheering him for denouncing the BBC's coverage of COVID and vaccines.

Anyway, the New York Times and many other publications have caught and summed up the interview, with the pullquotes primarily being about how Twitter will get around to removing blue checkmarks from celebrities and other accounts shortly, and how Musk has found it "painful" to run the company thus far.

Also, Musk claims that Twitter would be cashflow-positive this quarter, and that after laying off more than three-quarters of the company, he saved it from the brink. He said the company is now "roughly" breaking even, and that advertisers were starting to return.

He did say it was "not fun at all" to have to conduct those thousands of layoffs. And, in some hint of regret about some of his online behavior, he said, "I think I should not tweet after 3 a.m."

"Have I shot myself in the foot with tweets multiple times? Yes," Musk admitted.

When Clayton pressed him on his pledge last year to step down as Twitter's CEO and hire someone else, Musk joked that he had, and it was his dog, a Shiba Inu named Floki.

When Clayton asked if he'd ever sell the company, he at first said "no," but then hedged, saying he would sell if he found someone else who was as committed to "free speech" as he is.

In some good news, Musk changed the label on the BBC's Twitter account to "publicly funded" on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday morning, Musk screenshot an email from NPR announcing that they were quitting Twitter over his designation of them as "state-affiliated media," tweeting "Defund @NPR".

Previously: Something Else Is Happening With Twitter as Musk Sets Up New Company Called X Corp., Based In Nevada

Image via Twitter Spaces/BBC

Facebook criticised after failing to remove sexualised images of childrenhttps://t.co/zn8eVZG3Na pic.twitter.com/79xzA476Ez

— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) March 7, 2017

As part of a BBC investigative report on Facebook's ongoing efforts to combat sexual images of children on its platform, the broadcasting agency reported 100 photos to Facebook that would pretty clearly appear to violate the social network's "community standards." These were images of children under 16 in sexual poses alongside obscene comments, images of Facebook groups for pedophiles to share stolen images of children, and so forth. The BBC also found five convicted pedophiles with Facebook profiles, in violation of Facebook's rules that disallow convicted sex offenders from having accounts. After hitting the "report" button to alert the company, Facebook, the BBC claims, removed just 18 of the images. Automated replies from the social network said that the other 82 images didn't breach community standards.

That was cause for alarm at the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. "Facebook's failure to remove illegal content from its website is appalling and violates the agreements they have in place to protect children," a spokesperson told the BBC. "It also raises the question of what content they consider to be inappropriate and dangerous to children."

But what happened next might be even more troubling. When BBC reporters asked Facebook for an interview about its moderation systems, the social network's director of policy, Simon Milner, agreed to an interview — but first requested that the BBC provide examples of the material it had reported that wasn't removed by the moderators. The BBC complied... and Facebook reported the BBC to the UK's National Crime Agency.

Here's Angus Crawford, a BBC news correspondent:

"We have carefully reviewed the content referred to us and have now removed all items that were illegal or against our standards," Facebook wrote in a statement to the BBC. "This content is no longer on our platform. We take this matter extremely seriously and we continue to improve our reporting and take-down measures... It is against the law for anyone to distribute images of child exploitation. When the BBC sent us such images we followed our industry's standard practice and reported them to Ceop [Child Exploitation & Online Protection Centre."

“The fact that Facebook sent images that had been sent to them, that appear on their site, for their response about how Facebook deals with inappropriate image... [The] fact that they sent those on to the police seemed to me to be extraordinary..." says BBC director of editorial policy, David Jordan. "One can only assume that the Facebook executives were unwilling or certainly reluctant to engage in an interview or a debate about why these images are available on the Facebook site."

Ironically, Facebook has been criticized for its over-censorship of images in the past: Last September, the company removed a famous Vietnam war image of a naked girl running from a Napalm attack. The photograph, called "The Terror of War" and captured by Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Nick Ut, was included on Facebook among a list of "seven photographs that changed the history of warfare" created by Norway's largest newspaper, Aftenposten.

"Listen, Mark. This is serious," the papers editor-in-chief wrote in a front page open letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. "First you create rules that don’t distinguish between child pornography and famous war photographs. Then you practice these rules without allowing space for good judgment."

Later, in early January, the Facebook bowdlerized a 450-year-old Italian statue of the god Neptune, naked and holding a trident.

Related: Norwegians' Outcry Over Facebook Censoring An Iconic Vietnam War Photo Leads To Company's Reversal

The Twittersphere was all aflutter today as the food cart (and food table) sensation hit South Park, because this time it drew media interest from BBC Radio, some unnamed video outlet and, yes, your 'umble narrator at SFist. Among the fine folks dishing out tasty, affordable treats were @GumboCart, @AdoboHobo, @TheChaiCart, @WholesomeBakery, @MagicCurryKart, and more. More pictures here to warm up your appetite for next time.

Cheeky "BBC correspondents" Edvan Cinque Terra and Darvid Tokishi take the piss out of Mission hipsterdom, "a culture where apathy is considered sexually attractive" (hm, sounds pretty British to us, too) in the above video. Dolores Park, t-shirts adorned with "important political discourse," and the defeat of the American Apparel store by people in tight clothing are all covered in the report.

[Via Laughing Squid]

We have been singing "Happy we," thankful that Bostridge was coming to sing at Herbst tonight for SF Performances. Actually, we even were supposed to tease you with an interview, but Ian poor thing got a cold last week, and had to rest for his NY concert and canceled our phone call. Obviously, based on the review, he was fully recovered since stuffy nose is not part of his reputation. Which means you're in for a treat.

If you're aching for an interview, here is one here and here you can find Ian in his own video interview. After the jump, a clip of him singing Schubert, as he will tonight, with tonight piano accompanist, Julius Drake.

Throbbing Pain
Ars Technica is reporting on a new California bill that would ban the use of toxins in the production of cell phones and other electronic devices. If passed, they claim, the bill would shape environmental legislation and impose restrictions on electronics manufacturers in the rest of the country.

Sensitivity to Light and other Stimuli
Google announced a new Google Page Creator service on Thursday for the simple, HTML-free creation of ugly web pages with 100MB of web space. The company had already cut off new sign-ups within hours of releasing the service, because of high demand. Interested users can still get on the mailing list to be notified when new accounts are available. Alternatively, they could try Google's own blogspot, Yahoo's geocities, WordPress.com, Yahoo 360, MySpace, Livejournal....

Nausea and Vomiting
Apple's iTunes Music Store countdown contest is over, with the billionth song downloaded being a track by Coldplay. The "winner" was a user from Michigan who now has a scholarship to Julliard (not some obscure music school, as some cynics predicted) named in his honor.

Speech Problems
A hearing today was supposed to determine the fate of the BlackBerry, which has been under threat of a shutdown because of patent infringement. CNet News reports that the service remains available for now and also provides a transcript of the Judge's ruling.

Inability to Focus
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has been getting attention for his interview with the Globe and Mail in which he criticizes the company for undermining its philosophy and splitting its focus. He says that the switch to Intel processors undermined the company's "different is better" philosophy, and that the company should spin off iPod and other consumer electronics into a separate division, to allow the rest of the company to focus on computers and operating systems.

OK. We promise never to attempt lame rhyming ever again. But we DID want to let you know that there's a "Creature Comforts" marathon on BBC America tonight, starting at 7:30 p.m. with the premiere of "Merry Christmas Everybody!" If you've ever seen Nick Park's Oscar-winning short "Creature Comforts," then you know what the show is like. And if you haven't, go watch it RIGHT NOW!

Also tonight, Darlene Love will be making her annual "Late Show With David Letterman" appearance to sing his--and our--favorite Christmas song, "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home.)"

Speaking of Christmas songs, KQED will be airing local boy Chris Isaak's Christmas special at the crack of midnight on Christmas Eve. Or, if you've got digital cable, you can catch it numerous times on KQED Encore, channel 189.

As for the rest of the holiday weekend, you can probably manage to watch all of A Christmas Story during its marathon 24-hour run on TBS by just flipping to it for 10 minutes at a time throughout the weekend, (or, if you've never actually seen it, we highly recommend sitting down and watching it all the way through. It really is that good.) On Saturday at 8 p.m. NBC will re-run It's a Wonderful Life, another Christmas movie that lives up to all of the hype. And if you've never seen it before, because you happen to be blind, you can listen to former President George Bush give a descriptive narration of the film through the process of "Descriptive TheatreVision." (We kid you not.)

But we think the single most important television programming this weekend can be found on "Action 36" (cable channel 6) from 7 p.m. to midnight on Saturday, and from 9 a.m. to noon on the 25th. We are speaking, of course, of "The Holiday Log." Commercial-free video of a burning fireplace, complete with cheesy Christmas songs! You can hang your stockings under the TV with care, and if you sit REALLY close, we think it might even warm you up a little...

Happy Generic Winter Holiday, everybody!

People who've been reading our "Trimethyldioxypurist" missives will not be especially surprised by the winners. For those who are strangers to our periodic ramblings about coffee and cafes around the City by the Bay, here are our favorites among the many, many cool, delicious, and often unique coffee choices at which we overcaffeinated during the past year. We give our big, meaty fist (and, yeah, those are, in fact, knobby knuckles in the logo) to:

BEST "bring-it-home" coffee:
TIE--Taylor Maid Farms and Blue Bottle Coffee. What we've sampled from the former is delicious, readily accessible to all sorts of tastes, and the company engages in "Green" practices to boot. Blue Bottle, meanwhile, has many interesting beans and roasts--patrons should be careful about picking one that'll suit your particular tastes, as they tend to be very distinct; the baristi at BBC (whether Hayes Valley kiosk or at the Farmer's Market) are always happy to help you pick one.

BEST "drink it there" coffee:
Like a broken record, we're awarding this 'Fistie to the Blue Bottle kiosk in Hayes Valley. We think this still pretty much says it all.

BEST espresso + milk drink:

A cappuccino from Boulange de Polk. We don't know how they do what they do with that milk, but we lurves 'em. Makes spending a Sunday morning in Polk Gulch a real treat.

BEST old-school cafe:

Caffe Trieste still absolutely brings it. We honor our favorite among old-time cafes that helped set the precedent for good coffee. Tried and true, Trieste ain't over by any means, its espresso straight-up kicks ass.

BEST coffee place with bad coffee:

Red's Java House. The coffee, frankly, stinks, but the views and people are great, the food is delightfully simple and greasy, and this place could have just as easily have received a made-up 'Fistie for "best place to battle a hangover." In fact, we'll give it that one too (though we should probably consult Mr. Staggering Through Fog, SFist Drew, on that one).

BEST new cafe:

Ritual Coffee Roasters. We're actually writing this from Ritual right now; the place has really caught on, as evidenced by the lack of available tables. In our initial review, we only talked about the coffee, which is done via a press pot on order. We can now attest many times over that the espresso and espresso drinks (we're now pausing to take another hit of our Americano) kick ass as well. Interestingly, there's a roasting machine hanging out in the back . . . will it go into use? Who knows. Either way, Ritual is our early favorite for next year's 'Fistie winner.

BEST coffee joint, overall, period:
We use "joint" because we can't really call the kiosk a "cafe." Obviously, it's Blue Bottle--our fave espresso, our fave baristi, our fave beans, our second-fave drip (to Ritual,who cheats by using the press pots), our fave affilliated blog; our favorite thing to bring to people from out of town as gifts . . . etc. etc. etc. Yeah, we're that fan who takes it way too far and starts stalking.

While only we at SFist can wield these mighty 'Fisties, we also want to know what you think! Hit the comments section, folks -- nominations for next year have already begun.

As we settled into our seats at the Castro for the world premiere of documentary , part of the SF Int'l South Asian Film Festival, there was a generalized hubbub as a tall man wearing black and carrying a guitar case strode down the aisle. We heard his escort say, "It's so weird that no one's recognizing you!"

Turns out that man is Pakistani-American rock star Salman Ahmed, the narrator of the documentary It's My Country Too. Ahmed is the lead guitarist for the band Junoon, which has been called the U2 of Pakistan. We think this makes Ahmed Bono (scroll down to read Bono's letter to Ahmed), since the Edge doesn't seem to take too many positions on global politics. Junoon actually seems to be, in spirit and in sound, more like Pakistan's Rage Against The Machine with Ahmed their Tom Morello, but we don't actually know anything about the Pakistani rock scene.

It's My Country Too, produced by the BBC, follows Ahmed as he travels America trying to see how 9/11 politics have affected the Pakistani-American community. After the jump: Muslim comedians, Muslim lawyers, and the founders of the website Muslims for Bush (who are Salman Ahmed's aunt, uncle, and cousin).

Picture of Salman Ahmed from the BBC website

So you get a bunch of free Stones tickets and a luxury box to see them opening night at Fenway handed over to you by some company out of the kindness of their hearts. So you then sell them for a cool hundred thousand to anyone who wants the pleasure of seeing the World's Greatest Rock Band in the company of our Governor. Great idea, right? What could go wrong?

Lots.

First of all, the whole scheme of buying tickets and then selling them to someone else for a whole lot more money? We don't know what they call that in politics, but out in the street, it's called scalping. And so a bunch of people in California and Massachusetts are asking for investigations as to whether Arnie violated Massachusetts scalping laws. The state might actually investigate this just to spite Schwarzenegger because he also managed to piss off the Governor of Massachusetts by not dropping him a line to say "hey" while in the state.

Image from the BBC

Fast forward to the 21st century: We finally resurrected our PowerBook from beyond the grave (thanks for not putting in the motion protection for hard drives in the 12" model, Apple -- we lost our pirated music collection all our pirated applications), we installed all our software updates and got the fancy new iTunes 4.9, and decided to play with the new tool for subscribing to podcasts. First stop -- SFist Violet's Open Source Sex.

Of course, we had to wade past all the content from KCRW and the BBC, but when we found Violet's feed, it was marked 'explicit.' The latest episode, where she read from her teledildonics prezzo at Dorkbot, had more to do with creating open source standards for the software and more hygenic hardware. But Steve Jobs thinks that porn is bad and evil and dirty and something that Apple would never want associated with their brand -- though we're sure he has no problem selling hardware to all the creatives in the porn industry. This 'concerned parent' wants them to go further and install parental locks, you know, for the children.

When all is said and done, marking stuff 'explicit' is going to be great -- it'll make the good podcasts so easy to find! Kind of like how the packages addressed to your parents in non-descript, brown paper packaging were mysteriously lost by the postman or stolen from your front porch.

Via BoingBoing and Fleshbot.