It's been a month full of turbulence for Tesla. Although its CEO, Elon Musk, was originally a media darling as he cultivated an incredibly strong brand, it seems that those days are long gone.
Ever since he poorly handled an earnings call and was dismissive of two Wall Street analysts, the trend has been downward.
And in the past week he's been very critical of the media and its reporting regarding issues surrounding the Model 3, his company's factory conditions for workers, executive departures and Autopilot-related crash investigations.
It was pretty predictable that some journalists would not take this criticism well. It's funny how that works: You can take on a company and a man, but when the cannon gets turned around on them, they can't handle it.
Given all of these happenings, we were curious: Do YOU think that Musk is onto something when it comes to being more critical and mindful of the media's potential ulterior motives and selective reporting?
In a Twitter exchange on Saturday Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, described newsrooms as "bleak." He accused NBC News reporter Ben Collins of "living in a bubble of self-righteous sanctimony" when Collins asked Musk if he'd ever spent time in a newsroom.
Joshua Topolsky, a veteran tech editor and founder of The Outline, an online publication, asked Musk: "Do you think it's in the interest of powerful people to A: support a free press that exposes their lies, or B: tear it down so their lies are easier to tell?" Topolsky wrote. "Now ask yourself why the polls would look bad."
Musk responded cryptically: "Who do you think *owns* the press? Hello."
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