April 30, 2020

Let’s Dial Back the Elon Musk Coverage, OK?

Ding Ting/Xinhua via ZUMA

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Periodically the press anoints someone as worthy of nonstop coverage. Sarah Palin had that honor long after most losing VP candidates have drifted back into obscurity. (Quick: who was Hillary Clinton’s running mate?) Still, Palin was a former VP candidate. More recently Donald Trump has had that honor, which is arguably defensible since he’s the president of the United States.¹

But why Elon Musk? He doesn’t get Trumpesque coverage, but still, every single thing the guy does or says makes the news. Maybe not on the front page, but somewhere, and I don’t get it. He runs a couple of interesting little companies and he’s got a big mouth that writes checks his IQ usually can’t cash, but that’s about it. Is he really that fascinating?

¹Right? I have to rattle my brain a little bit every time I write that sentence.

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AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

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