When reporting on a story it’s pertinent to get facts right. Particularly so if you are going to battle up against a mogul such as Tesla CEO Elon Musk; one of the few capable of defending himself against misinformation. That’s exactly what happened to CNN. Their lackadaisical fact-checking “journalism” has finally caught up to them.
Elon Musk announced he obtained over a thousand ventilators to give to local California hospitals treating affected coronavirus patients. Whatever motivated CNN is unknown, but the official twitter account tweeted: “three weeks after Tesla CEO Elon Musk said he had obtained more than 1,000 ventilators to help California hospitals treating patients infected with the coronavirus, the governor’s office says none of the promised ventilators have been received by hospitals.”
Musk immediately replied to the tweet with perhaps the best comeback possible: “What I find most surprising is that CNN still exists.” Enough said. Musk then turned to Governor Newsom and asked him to “please fix this misunderstanding” along with an email from a California official stating how the ventilators were received and worked great.
What I find most surprising is that CNN still exists
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 16, 2020
CNN responded to Musk’s response very maturely. Just kidding, it was childish, defending their mistakes and instead, blamed the Governor’s office. “Weird to attack CNN for what the CA governor’s office said- especially when your own spokespeople at Tesla didn’t respond to requests for comment” tweeted CNN executive Matt Dornic. “Seems like your outrage should, uh, be directed at the entity that made the claim, not the one that reported it. U new to this?” added Dornic. The squabbling resembles that of a frat kid, not an executive of a major global news organization.
Perhaps you are unaware that Twitter has a search function? The hospitals *themselves* acknowledged receipt of ventilators.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 16, 2020
Dornic needs to be taken off his high horse. As Musk notes in response directly to Dornic, a simple search would have sufficed to shut down the notion masks hadn’t been sent out. “Perhaps you are unaware that Twitter has a search function? The hospitals *themselves* acknowledged receipt of ventilators” Musk replied. He then followed the tweet with many more examples and lists of hospitals that had *publicly* written notes of gratitude to Elon Musk and Tesla for the masks that they received. Many were accompanied by photographs of the medical staff with the masks. Therefore, we too are surprised “that CNN still exists.”
