{"id":366268,"date":"2018-06-21T23:41:54","date_gmt":"2018-06-21T22:41:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/elon-musks-latest-brainstorm-takes-aim-at-meddlesome-media\/"},"modified":"2018-06-21T23:41:54","modified_gmt":"2018-06-21T22:41:54","slug":"elon-musks-latest-brainstorm-takes-aim-at-meddlesome-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/elon-musks-latest-brainstorm-takes-aim-at-meddlesome-media\/","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk\u2019s Latest Brainstorm Takes Aim at Meddlesome Media"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Elon<\/p>\n

Elon Musk gazes into the future. (cc photo: Michelle Andonian\/OnInnovation<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Elon Musk, the eccentric South African billionaire head of electric vehicle\/battery maker Tesla and rocket company SpaceX, is anything but subtle when it comes to marketing his own personal brand of nerd-cool CEO.<\/p>\n

Musk\u2019s latest wild business ideas include consumer-ready<\/a> flamethrowers<\/a> and a candy company<\/a> aimed at trolling See\u2019s Candies owner Warren Buffett. His own cutely named Boring Company has announced plans to dig an express transit tunnel<\/a> from downtown Chicago to O\u2019Hare Airport, and is currently digging a Hyperloop-equipped tunnel<\/a> under the Los Angeles 405 freeway. It also intends to repurpose the dirt from the Los Angeles dig into Lego-like bricks<\/a> for purchase by Musk-obsessed consumers.<\/p>\n

In a Twitter<\/b> tirade last month, the billionaire announced his newest enterprise<\/a>, a far cry from his usual quirky sci-fi tech projects: a website \u201cwhere the public can rate the core truth of any article and track the credibility score over time of each journalist, editor & publication,\u201d which he plans to call Pravda<\/b>.<\/p>\n

While his announcement was possibly in jest, based on the website\u2019s being named for the former Soviet newspaper\u2014and the variant he chose to purchase as domain name, pravduh.com<\/strong><\/a>\u2014one of Musk’s employees indeed registered<\/a> Pravda Corp<\/b> in Delaware last year. Sharing similarities with Snopes<\/b> and other factcheckers, Pravda<\/b> looks to be, among other things, another instance of the time-honored Silicon Valley trope<\/a> of inventing something that is already invented<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The advent of Musk\u2019s upcoming journalism-rating website comes on the heels of big trouble at Tesla, which is currently the most-shorted stock<\/a> on the market. The company is bleeding cash<\/a> and is struggling to meet production quotas to satisfy the 450,000-plus consumer reservations for its latest low-priced electric vehicle, the Model 3.<\/p>\n

Musk alleged in a company-wide email that a fire at the Fremont, California, Tesla factory was an act of sabotage<\/a> by an employee, and the company filed a lawsuit<\/a> against another employee alleged to have hacked a trove of company data. The CEO also announced layoffs<\/a> of 9 percent of Tesla\u2019s workforce on June 12, and some Tesla investors have called<\/a> for him to step down as head of the company. Tesla\u2019s autonomous car prototypes have been involved in more fatal crashes<\/a>, and media coverage of the company\u2019s woes seems to be reaching a fever<\/a> pitch<\/a>.<\/p>\n

An odd earnings call<\/a>, where Musk was antagonistic and dismissive of questions regarding media coverage of Tesla in comparison to other automakers, underscored the concern that Pravda<\/b> could be used as the billionaire’s tool to hobble and undermine meddlesome journalists.<\/p>\n

The Cult of Musk<\/b><\/h2>\n
\"Guardian:<\/p>\n

The Guardian<\/strong> (2\/9\/18<\/a>) touted Musk’s “desire to push the limits of what was possible for private enterprise” as a point of similarity to superhero Tony Stark.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Musk\u2019s new war against the media seems somewhat surprising, given that his larger-than-life persona and seemingly revolutionary business ventures have brought him legions of cheerleaders in the mainstream press.<\/p>\n

A sample of the many positive longform profiles from leading magazines, websites and newspapers:<\/p>\n