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Comment by joekrill | Hacker News Reader

I don't understand how we're jumping to the conclusion that Musk is responsible for this. No one seems to be claiming the "anonymous call" was made up, as far as I can tell. For all we know Tripp made the call himself to make himself look like more a victim. It's no less plausible than suggesting Musk made the call himself, or had someone make it on his behalf.

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The sheriff debunked it, and then Tesla tried to get the sheriff to hype up the event. The sheriff declined, and then Tesla (according to the sheriff) leaked it to the press.

https://twitter.com/willCIR/status/1105906726782435328

In Iowa they would have faced criminal blacklisting charges under Iowa Code 730.

No one seems to be claiming the "anonymous call" was made up, as far as I can tell.

The "call" as such wasn't made up -- apparently Tripp did make a call the company, and in a state of considerable emotional agitation.

Rather, it's the part about threatening to shoot the place up that was (according to the local Sheriff involved) basically made up (by the company, in its reporting to the press).

Read the article man. He kept pressing the police on it even though everyone involved knew it was all bullshit. The original tipster doesn't even matter at that point.

"The sheriff says that when he’d looked into the anonymous call after police confronted Tripp, the threat seemed less threatening than the company made it sound. The caller said Tripp was volatile but didn’t say he was on his way to shoot up the place. “You remember playing telephone as a kid?” Antinoro asks. “It got blown out of proportion.” He dropped the investigation when Tesla declined to make available a colleague of Tripp’s who might have called in the tip."

So basically an emotional phone call was recounted by a chain of people and blown out of proportion. Then the company felt the need to publicize it in order to get a little dirt on the shoes of the would be (and ultimately failed) whistleblower.

The sheriff sounds like a great and honest fellow, but the rest of this is just a mess. Of course, one employee running to the press with a "whistleblower" story that turns out to be misleading rubbish and doing billions of dollars in market damage isn't great. Responding to him this way isn't great.

What a mess.

I can't help but think of the "joe job"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_job

The more boring answer is that Musk's thin skin promotes a culture of pettyness, and someone at Tesla did it without direction.

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