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Elon Musk

@elonmusk

 

https://mobile.twitter.com/elonmusk/status/999364333674024960

Musk is aware of the complexity of journalism.

Yes politifact.com is a good site, USA centered only though
or do you disagree John2290?

Machine-learning would have to do this, and then we would all probably die of incompetence.

Pravda. ... Pravda (Russian: Правда, IPA: [ˈpravdə] ( listen), "Truth") is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, formerly the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most influential papers in the country with a circulation of 11 million

Wonder how long before the media starts spinning Elon into Russiagate and gets a visit from Mueller?

Why would you trust the public any more than you trust the media? I mean, the idea sounds good in theory, but how on earth would you make it work?

Also, while the idea seems good, his (presumed from what he wrote) motivation for this rant is petty. Complaining about the media reporting accidents related to Teslas autopilot feature? Sure, maybe automotive accidents don't really belong on national news, but there has been a lot of public interest in autonomous vehicles lately, and Tesla isn't the only one under scrutiny...

I love the work Musk does with SpaceX, Tesla, OpenAI and more, but sometimes I wonder wether he's a huge jerk underneath, or at least rather immature. He threw a similar hissy fit at the last Tesla investor conference call when some of the analyst questions were becoming difficult (difficult as in trying to find out how Tesla plans to solve its cash situation).

Musk is just as "loose" with the truth as any of the news outlets. The reality is he is just having a bit of a tantrum as lately the press has highlighted his failures rather than successes, but then that is what happens when you court the press the way he does, yes he gets great coverage for successes, equally though it magnifies the attention of any negatives.

The only thing you can be certain of with this site is it will only show Musk's version of the truth, which is usually at best painted through his rose coloured glasses or quite often an outright lie.

Joke or not, feeding the roaring spinning fire that is the media, is only asking for trouble eventually if they ever decide you need to be "dealt with".

Unless of course his idea works. Can't wait to watch MNN (Martian News Network).

I honestly think it would be fairly accurate, but I also think

1)It's extremely vulnerable to abuse in the form of hacking and botnets. I know Elon has stated he'd take those into account, but that's not exactly easy.

2)People would accuse it of having a political bias if and when it doesn't share their opinion. It doesn't matter how good an article is, if something runs contrary to someone's belief, that person will deny it's source's legitimacy until the facts become undeniable. Just look at flat-earthers...

There is honest and respectable media today that tells the truth. It doesn't matter where it comes from, it's just gonna be ignored if it doesn't fit in certain people's agenda. There are popular sites today that call out lies and they are labeled "fake news".

If anything it will make the lie peddlers even stronger. Because now they have a central platform where they can call out news reports that were fake and instantly disregard a whole news organization because of one little honest mistake. You know, kinda how it is right now.

What Elon forgets is that this is a tool for both sides and whoever uses it louder wins. Guess who's louder, truths or lies.

Few things change the world overnight. That doesn't mean it isn't a bad thing.

If it doesn't work out, it will likely become another vitriolic cesspool of a website enabling an echo-chamber of like-minded people (some bitter, some zealously idealistic). This tends to happen when a website cannot gather the population necessary to maintain a diversity of ideologies. Failure, in this case, is the best case scenario.

If it does work, it provides Elon Musk (and his successors, who would be functionally appointed by investors) with the infrastructure necessary to damage critics and push a narrative. Especially if the topic is sensitive (like government corruption, or corporate corruption, or any scandal) as those situations tend to rely on anonymous testimony as many people do not want to lose their jobs or their lives. Anonymous testimony is already often maligned for being impossible to verify (by necessity, mind you) and would make any substantial scandal an easy target for someone like Musk to sick a mob on (for even just fudge the numbers to make the website or whatever look bad as most people just look at the numbers). A powerful propaganda tool.

Besides, there is already enough in place already to prevent outright lying by the media. They are called anti-defamation laws, most countries have them. The main issue there is that not everyone can afford a lawyer (hence why the news is more careful reporting on well-to-do people and corporations). If Musk wants an actual practical way to contribute to a more honest media, perhaps he could start a firm specializing in defamation cases. But that wouldn't be flashy or really contribute to that cult of personality he has going on.