Hey Elon Musk, Let's Talk About The Media

Journalism

from the bad-press-happens,-attacking-the-media-doesn't-help dept

Hey Elon,

Let’s start this off by noting I’m generally a big fan of what you’ve done over the years with your various companies (Zip2 always seemed a bit silly, but, you know, since then…). Just recently I got a tour of the Tesla factory and I felt like Charlie in the Chocolate Factory, even if I didn’t get to own the factory when it was over. I’ve also been impressed by the way you decide to seriously “just get it done” when you see something that should be done. I mean, half the world seemed to think your idea for the Boring Company was actually a joke and yet a year and a half later, you’ve got a freaking tunnel under LA (in contrast, the 2nd Avenue Subway in NY was proposed in 1919 and just opened partially last year). So, like, I take it seriously when you say you’ve got a new project underway.

And, yesterday you went on a bit of a Twitter rant about the media and said that you were going to start a media truth rating site called Pravda (clever!). And, as with the Boring Company, I believe you’ll do it. I mean, you actually did incorporate Pravda Corp. last fall. So, you’ve got that going for you.

On top of that, I even think you have a general point about how bad the mainstream media is. We’ve been at this for over 20 years, and some of our most successful stories have been calling out really bad reporting by big publications. It’s good to keep them honest.

That said, I have some pretty serious concerns about this whole setup and believe you’ve misdiagnosed the problem. Let’s start with your tweet that suggests the reason reporters get stories wrong is because they’re incentivized by clicks and ad dollars:

I’m curious if you could point to any actual example of that happening in practice today for a mainstream publication? I know that Gawker — who your former colleague Peter Thiel killed off — used to pay writers a bonus based on clicks, but I can’t think of any other news organization that still does that. It’s a nice story that people outside the media like to claim, but actual journalists know is not actually the case. Hell, here at Techdirt, I’ve never actually told any of our writers how much traffic their stories get, because I don’t want them thinking about clicks at all. I want them to write the best stories they can write, and then they can let me focus on how to monetize good content and a good insightful community, rather than just going for scale and clicks.

And, as for the whole “fossil fuel companies as advertisers” bit, it may be true that there are some publishers out there who do worry about offending their advertisers, but I’ve almost never seen that information conveyed to the journalists themselves, and in the rare cases where that does happen, lots of journalists would (and do) quit rather than feel that their reporting was compromised by advertisers. So, blaming “clicks” and “advertisers” for more sensational stories you don’t like is — dare I say it — “fake news” (in the parlance of our times, even if that’s a dumb and meaningless phrase). It’s good to correct the record when the press gets something wrong, but imputing incorrect motives to the reason for the coverage has serious consequences that you really might want to think about.

The reason Tesla gets lots of coverage, both good and bad, is because it’s a fucking fascinating company. You’ve built (1) the first successful new American car company in like a century and (2) done it with an important advancement in technology (electric cars) that have failed in the past. It’s a fascinating story. And, as tech comms guy Aaron Zamost pointed out years ago, there’s a predictable cycle of “Silicon Valley Time” in how all successful companies tend to get covered — for good or for bad. For what it’s worth, it looks like you’re somewhere in the 9 to 10 o’clock hour on Zamost’s clock (which actually means you’re not that far off from hitting 12 o’clock and getting to start the cycle again.)

But, let’s get back to this whole Pravda (again, clever name!) idea (or is it called “You’re Right!” now?). I know it feels like you’re striking back against some recent bad media coverage. But, honestly, you’re really just serving to call more attention to some of the negative stories about Tesla out there right now (including an eye-opening story from the Center for Investigative Reporting, a non-profit not exactly known for clickbait or making decisions based on its non-existent advertisers). Of course, you’ve done this before as well. I wrote about it five years ago, when another instance of you lashing out at the media only seemed to call more attention to those negative stories.

There’s a term for that sort of thing that maybe you haven’t heard about.

But, there is a larger, more important issue here that should be discussed. I know you’ve dismissed a few people who have suggested your anti-media rant does more harm than good, but you might want to rethink that stance. Yes, the media makes mistakes. Sometimes those mistakes are pretty serious. And, yes, some media organization are just… terrible. But painting the entire media industry with a broad brush, at the same time that many other powerful institutions who don’t want to be held accountable (*cough* *cough*) are doing the same thing, doesn’t help make the media better or more credible. It just empowers those who seek to discredit the actually good and necessary job of underpaid, overworked reporters who are actually breaking important stories, holding the powerful accountable and speaking truth to power.

Indeed, if you’ve actually read this far (and I know that’s unlikely, but humor me), I would recommend seriously considering the four questions that Alexios Mantzarlis at the Poynter Institute (again, a non-profit known for supporting serious, thoughtful journalism) had for you about this plan — which really lays out all the ways in which your plan can go wrong. Crowdsourcing has lots of benefits. But crowdsourcing “truth” tends to turn into a popularity contest of narratives. And, as we’ve seen, sometimes that leads to some pretty fucked up outcomes.

And you don’t need to encourage that kind of thing just because a few journalists pissed you off. You’re crazy rich and super powerful. The journalists you are maligning tend to be neither of those things. And your plan looks likely to make things not just worse for them, but to make their jobs in actually bringing about truth that much more difficult.

I might not know how to build a cool factory like the Tesla factory or be able to launch my sports cars into space, but I do know something about the media world. And your little tirade and plans to “fix” things, are based on faulty assumptions and will make a difficult situation for the media much worse — doing pretty serious damage to the good work that much of the media actually does. I have no problem with calling out bad reporting, weak fact checking, silly assumptions and the like. You’ve got a powerful soapbox and you should use it accordingly. But, tarring and feathering the entire media and providing tools for everyone else to do the same is going to lead to really bad outcomes.

So, please, focus on continuing to do the impossible with your various companies rather than attacking the media. The Silicon Valley clock will keep ticking, and it’ll be 12 o’clock before you know it. Hopefully, by then, there may even be some Teslas that those of us working in media can actually afford.

Thanks,

Mike

Filed Under: credibility, elon musk, fact checking, journalism, media, trust
Companies: pravda