PBS News’s contempt for space entrepreneur Elon Musk, a relatively new but influential figure in President Donald Trump’s orbit, is resoundingly obvious. But PBS may have gone dangerously overboard in a 3:55 p.m. Inauguration Day post on “X” (which Musk happens to own) with a smear worthy of MSNBC at its worst, claiming “Billionaire Elon Musk gave what appeared to be a fascist salute Monday while making a speech at the post-inauguration celebration for President Donald Trump at the Capital One Arena.”

The long X post claimed:

Billionaire Elon Musk gave what appeared to be a fascist salute Monday while making a speech at the post-inauguration celebration for President Donald Trump at the Capital One Arena. “Some elections are important, some are not. But this one, this one really mattered and I just want to say thank you for making it happen,” Musk said before putting his hand on his chest and then raising it in a salute that appeared similar to the “Sieg Heil” used by Nazis at their victory rallies. “It is thanks to you that the future of civilization is assured,” Musk said….

Included in the 33-second clip (but absent from the text above) is all the explanation any fair-minded journalist would need. After Musk says “…and I just want to say thank you for making it happen. Thank you,” at the :19-second mark puts his right hand to his heart and then snaps his right arm outward, following up by saying “my heart goes out to you.” In other words, he was metaphorically throwing his heart to the crowd.

Needless to say, there aren’t many fair-minded journalists at taxpayer-funded PBS these days.

(Bonus: Regular PBS guest, hysteric leftist historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat, doubled down on the Nazi smear, forwarding PBS’s X post and adding, pompously: “Historian of fascism here. That was a Nazi salute – and a very belligerent one too.”)