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Meta: What is it with Tesla that each little thing is being blown epically out of proportion by news outlets, press, TV, etc.? I mean, i get it - bad news are

Meta: What is it with Tesla that each little thing is being blown epically out of proportion by news outlets, press, TV, etc.? I mean, i get it - bad news are good news, bring clicks etc. But with Tesla? - Cybertruck? Rust, tyre problems - "recalls" which are OTA software updates - waste disposal in CA - ... Elon is of course no saint, a controversial figure - in fact, i think he's pretty much a clown and at this point in time, he's doing Tesla a disservice by still being "in charge". But that's not the point with the recent (?) reporting, i feel this seems to be bigger and across much of the media i observe - as if every troll factory in the world has a contract to bash on Tesla... Recently, it's gotten so bad, i had to use RSS-Bridge with the filter plugin to filter each headline that contains "Tesla" - right now only sparing HN from this treatment - not sure if i'm keeping that up for much longer :(

ShamelessC 3y ago
Seems obvious to me. Tesla has an absurd valuation. Their CEO is the richest person alive (or was at one point) and has a cult-like status amongst many online fans. This person has historically used his loudspeaker to lie, pump, dump, you name it. Finally, Tesla as a company is premised on subverting an existing industry with very established players - it’s entertaining news when that doesn’t go according to plan. Probably similar reasons why the press jumped all over every Apple mistake when Jobs was around.
- jjguy 3y ago
  All this, but there is also some negative PR getting funded, presumably by the incumbent car manufacturers threatened by Tesla. Remember that NYT article came out in 2018 that painted such a terrible picture of Elon (1)? A year later it showed up on my Facebook feed as a paid advertisement. Who pays to promote a year-old news article?
  - yifanl 3y ago
    I wonder if they actually want Tesla to succeed (or at least partially). Because if its true that an auto manufacturer can achieve those valuations, then they can too.
grecy 3y ago
One of the richest men in the world has a billion dollar short position on Tesla. A lot of people stand to lose a tremendous amount of money if the stock price doesn’t come way down

ShamelessC 3y ago

Seems obvious to me. Tesla has an absurd valuation. Their CEO is the richest person alive (or was at one point) and has a cult-like status amongst many online fans. This person has historically used his loudspeaker to lie, pump, dump, you name it. Finally, Tesla as a company is premised on subverting an existing industry with very established players - it’s entertaining news when that doesn’t go according to plan. Probably similar reasons why the press jumped all over every Apple mistake when Jobs was around.

jjguy 3y ago
All this, but there is also some negative PR getting funded, presumably by the incumbent car manufacturers threatened by Tesla. Remember that NYT article came out in 2018 that painted such a terrible picture of Elon (1)? A year later it showed up on my Facebook feed as a paid advertisement. Who pays to promote a year-old news article?
- yifanl 3y ago
  I wonder if they actually want Tesla to succeed (or at least partially). Because if its true that an auto manufacturer can achieve those valuations, then they can too.

grecy 3y ago

One of the richest men in the world has a billion dollar short position on Tesla. A lot of people stand to lose a tremendous amount of money if the stock price doesn’t come way down