
Musk and Tesla are doing much better than headlines suggest - neo4sure
https://medium.com/the-future-is-electric/musk-and-tesla-are-doing-much-better-than-headlines-suggest-9091d8ea59d0
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cliftonk
Who upvotes this? The backlash against Musk and Tesla is solely through Musk’s
behavior. He acts like a penny stock fraudster and the negative press he
receives is because of the Koch brothers? Surely Soros also owes my girlfriend
a lot of money for protesting. Having created great products is no excuse for
this kind of behavior.

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neo4sure
The article is not talking about a backlash it is simply stating the number of
negative articles is a part of a coordinated campaign. Musks tweets do muddy
the waters and created their own controversy. I think sans his tweets the
argument could have been made more clear. Now everyone will just point to the
tweets.

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skybrian
Maybe, but it's Musk's own tweets that really get people's attention, and you
can't blame outsiders for them.

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woodandsteel
But you can blame the mainstream media for not also reporting all the good
news about Tesla. It seems clear they have made an editorial decision to only
tell bad stories.

It's especially puzzling because the MM is very concerned about global climate
change, and that problem can't be solved withuout EV's, so you would expect
them to be big Tesla boosters. Instead they seem to be following the Koch
brothers directions.

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skybrian
I think you underestimate the power of personal drama to drive away other
news. "Tesla sales up" isn't so exciting outside the business / car enthusiast
pages.

Musk, on the other hand, is a celebrity. That means everything he does gets a
lot of attention whether it's important or not. He successfully used personal
drama for many years to gain attention. Recently this celebrity focus turned
on him.

A conspiracy isn't needed to keep the media focused on celebrities; to the
extent one exists, it's redundant.

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woodandsteel
I'm not surprised there is a massive, coordinated attack against Musk and
Tesla. What surprises and disappoints me is that the mainstream media has
fallen for it so completely.

One theory I have heard is that the media gets a big part of its advertising
revenue from the ICE auto manufaturers, and they have been pressuring them. I
don't know if that is true, but it sounds plausible to me.

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Nasrudith
The mainstream media acting like congress courting lobbyists isn't too
surprising at this point. Their profits and margins are down from their peak
and they were getting bought out by billionaires since Rupert Murdoch at the
very least and the trend has continued. They have had an increasingly luddite
bent and have grown openly hateful of tech companies as they found themselves
losing to fact checking websites and social media in accuracy and wide spread
reach. Furthermore they spare the actually widespread hated telecom monopolies
like Comcast - who advertise frequently with them. Not soley them but they
have many reasons to be biased. Plus their tendency to go with what they think
will drive views and money.

Tesla's valuation is something that should be legitimately swingy in my
opinion - their future path while it has longterm viability how long until
setbacks slow advances or allow others to catch up or surpass them. There are
plenty of pioneering companies who made great strides in a field only to
ultimately go bankrupt. Electric cars are a clear part of the future given
efficiency and many reasons to improve batteries aside from them but Tesla
being the one to end up in the lead much less a winner on year by year time
tables is less certain. Disclaimer I own a few shares of TSLA in case it
becomes the next big thing. A small loss so far but it may rise again.

