Elon Musk is not only the second richest man in the world, but he has also become the best press tyrant since Donald Trump occupied the White House. To everyone’s amazement, Musk snares the news cycle and rides it like a clown on a barrel on a daily, frequently hourly, and frequently minute-by-minute basis. When he stumbles, he always gets back up and keeps riding while the press corps captures and broadcasts every gyration.
After Musk’s bid for Twitter earlier this year, and particularly since he purchased it last month, his skills at riding the barrel have been on full display. But he has always excelled at drawing attention to himself, making promises and forecasts about equipping his Tesla vehicles with self-driving capabilities, about his SpaceX company’s impending manned Mars landing, about the humanoid robots he allegedly is building, and many other similarly unfulfilled promises.
Reporters should not place much confidence in anything Musk says given his track record. Instead, practically every audacious statement he makes and every tweet he sends out are still tracked and published by the media. Since Musk drove his barrel into Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters and moved in to reimagine the service, this propensity, which was already severe, has blossomed into full bloom. Why does the media keep supporting this circus performance? How can journalists change their behaviour, then?
End of October saw Musk post, then remove, a link to an article alleging a fictitious conspiracy regarding the assault on Paul Pelosi. This was the start of Musk’s present dominance of the news. With press reports about the tweet and its removal, the sky appeared to be lighted up like it was the Fourth of July. He said in a tweet from November that Apple threatened to “withhold Twitter from its App Store, but won’t tell us why.” Then, two days later, Musk’s tweet clarifying that “the misunderstanding” with Apple had been “settled” in meetings with Apple CEO Tim Cook caused him to change his tune.
On December 11, Musk tweeted, “My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci,” apparently noticing a gap in the news, prompting loud and nearly universal condemnation in the press. All of this, however, served as a lead-up to Musk’s maniacal tweetstorm in the middle of December, in which he erroneously linked a South Pasadena altercation involving his young son X A-XII with the activities of the Twitter account ElonJet, which follows the movements of his personal jet in real-time. Musk suspended the ElonJet account and the Twitter accounts of other journalists, even those who had never contributed flight information, and pledged to take similar action against any other accounts that provide real-time travel information, acting like a vindictive deity.
Musk looked unable to control his rage. But as the barrel always turns, it did, and the next day he tweeted a poll asking if he should reinstate the accounts that had “doxxed” the position of his plane. The accounts were reinstated after the poll’s positive outcome. Similar to this, he restricted the posting of rival social media names and links on Twitter on December 18 before removing them on December 19. Then, among other tweets, one asking users if he should resign as CEO of Twitter appeared. Days later, he declared in a letter that he would step down “as soon as I find someone foolish enough to assume the post!” Who knows if he’ll actually follow through?
Reviewing Musk’s recent forays into news management from a distance, his approach seems puzzling. His left hand deprives. His right hand then responds. He then repeats the process, often reestablishing the status quo. So why bother, you ask? Because Musk enjoys hearing his name mentioned on TV and in print, just like Trump did before him. He believes that all publicity is beneficial and that no amount of publicity is sufficient, which explains his ongoing recidivism.
It can seem that this article is trying to pin Musk’s press manipulation on him. However, he is no more at fault than a press agent who bombards journalists with PR pitches over the phone, by U.S. mail, email, or text.
The “hot” news about Musk that he conjures up every 15 minutes has been used to Musk’s advantage so many times that one would think reporters and editors would add a few ice cubes and serve it, if necessary, at room temperature in brief paragraphs hidden in the depths of print and online publications. But journalists still eat Musk’s bait like they were mindless, bottom-feeding river fish. Reporters had a reason, at least, for spending so much time on Page One covering every fart and burp of Trump: the presidency’s largely omnipotent powers. With the stroke of a pen, he could upend entire industries, bar specific Muslims from entering the country, and redirect military funding to his priceless wall. What is there for Musk to compare to that? Just $163 billion in a world full of millionaires and a social media platform with fewer than 10 percent of the world’s subscribers.
In this space four years ago, I suggested that the media curb their obsession with every Trump statement by publishing a daily column on the inside pages titled “Shit Trump Said” to summarise his various PR blitzes and only report them in-depth if he actually follows through on them as opposed to just talking about them. Because Trump currently has almost no ability to put his words into action, the establishment press has generally reduced his Truth Social postings and rally provocations to a level even lower than “Shit Trump Said” since he left the White House.
It would serve numerous purposes to limit Musk’s remarks to a comparable “Shit Musk Said” (perhaps adjacent to the cartoons). In the first place, it would serve as a warning to Trump that journalists would no longer automatically cover him nonstop and that they won’t do so simply because he insults and bullies the media. The audience the barrel-roller desires would be denied by it. He wouldn’t say one thing and then change his mind the next day only to get attention. Additionally, it would release journalists from the brief choke chain that Musk has placed them in, allowing them to work on more important projects.
Informing audiences of information they don’t know is one of the press corps’ most important responsibilities. We can all now agree that Musk is a wealthy publicity hound who irritates reporters practically every day with his flimflam stunts, promises, and prophecies without spending another column inch on him. His antics require some attention, but perhaps for the time being it should be in the form of a huge soundproof blanket to drown out his monotonous, pointless braying.
