Elon Musk was surprisingly combative on Twitter yesterday and whatever drew his ire was directed at the media.
The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX accused the media of dishonesty while floating the idea of some sort of service to rate journalists and publications. In a Tweet, Musk said the service would be called Pravada which translates to “truth” in Russian. It was also the name of a Soviet Union newspaper.
“The holier-than-thou hypocrisy of big media companies who lay claim to the truth, but publish only enough to sugarcoat the lie, is why the public no longer respects them,” said Musk.
As expected, he was met with several responses but one, in particular, prompted him to reply. “Musk continues his slow transformation into a media-baiting Trump figure screaming irrationally about fake news. Hope it works out for you dude!” wrote Twitter user andyjayhawk.
“Thought you’d say that,” replied Musk. “Anytime anyone criticizes the media, the media shrieks, ‘You’re just like Trump!’ Why do you think he got elected in the first place? Because no ones (sic) believes you any more. You lost your credibility a long time ago.”
And the tweets kept coming.
The holier-than-thou hypocrisy of big media companies who lay claim to the truth, but publish only enough to sugarcoat the lie, is why the public no longer respects them https://t.co/Ay2DwCOMkr
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 23, 2018
Thought you’d say that. Anytime anyone criticizes the media, the media shrieks “You’re just like Trump!” Why do you think he got elected in the first place? Because no ones believes you any more. You lost your credibility a long time ago.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 23, 2018
Problem is journos are under constant pressure to get max clicks & earn advertising dollars or get fired. Tricky situation, as Tesla doesn’t advertise, but fossil fuel companies & gas/diesel car companies are among world’s biggest advertisers.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 23, 2018
Going to create a site where the public can rate the core truth of any article & track the credibility score over time of each journalist, editor & publication. Thinking of calling it Pravda …
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 23, 2018
Even if some of the public doesn’t care about the credibility score, the journalists, editors & publications will. It is how they define themselves.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 23, 2018
Not only needs to be botproof, but seek & unmask anyone operating a disinformation bot army
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 23, 2018
If you’re in media & don’t want Pravda to exist, write an article telling your readers to vote against it …
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 23, 2018
Maybe the media credibility rating site should be called “You’re Right!” I do actually own https://t.co/1JqqCF9inA, but for the moment I just have it automatically forward to Facebook News.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 24, 2018
He never said we didn't. Quite the contrary. His point is that a free society needs a free and credible press. The responsibility of The Fourth Estate can never be fulfilled by a press that the people have lost confidence in.
— Rocky Pruitt (@RockyPruitt) May 24, 2018
Catch Pat’s reaction to Elon’s outburst in the clip above.
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near my name?