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> I think it's a reasonable desire to want to work for SpaceX, but not want someone's first reaction to hearing that you work at SpaceX to be bringing up whatever stupid thing Elon has done this week

Like a lot of things, the blame for this falls on the news media.

The media is now responsible for Musk's unhinged twitter account? Man, people really will blame them for everything...

No, the media is responsible for people hearing about it.

If the mefia ignored him rather than running a story every time he runs his mouth the world would be a better place.

I guess it worked out well for Bill Cosby all those years, not so well for the ladies of course.

Or, Musk could behave like a decent, mature human being.

The man is the richest person on the planet. The media is going to report on what he says because, you know, he's the richest person on the planet.

I heard the exact same arguments about how the media shouldn't cover Trump spouting off, and it's absurd for the exact same reasons.

These people hold incredibly sway over industry, politics, public policy, etc. Hell, Musk's behaviour has led to the Texas AJ investigating Twitter! Not shining a light on their behaviour would be journalistic malpractice.

The very idea that journalists should just ignore these people when they behave badly betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of the purpose of journalism in an open and democratic society, while also failing to appreciate how much sway these people have over the way our world works.

Eh? How does informing people of an alegation of showing his dick and then paying her off help those news viewers?

90% of what they report on Musk is irrelevant.

Exposing the rich and powerful is a way to protect existing and future victims. It removes the perpetrators sense of invincibility and empowers victims to speak up.

But let's face it, you don't actually care about any of this. It's clear from the comments you're shilling for Elon. The thing I don't understand is why.

> It removes the perpetrators sense of invincibility and empowers victims to speak up.

That wasn't an angle I'd thought of (making the rich and powerful in general seem like they are accusable) and it makes things a lot of people have said in the last make more sense, so I thank you for suggesting it and have an upvote.

That said, the pattern of what the media publishes about celebrities in general, and Musk in particular doesn't fit. I am also skeptical it actually accomplishes this goal or that the benefits outweigh the costs.

> It's clear from the comments you're shilling for Elon. The thing I don't understand is why.

Taking this in the most charitable light of "what is motivating you to make all these somewhat pro-Elon posts over the last day?" I did some introspection.

Unfortunately, the answer is very long and complex and I couldn't figure out any way to condense it without being misleading and giving you the wrong impression (seriously, I tried! Unless you have a similar memeplex every shortening pattern matches to something I don't believe!).

I can say a bit about what the reasons aren't: I gain nothing tangible for this (I hold no stock in any Musk companies and am not employed in anything relevant). I have no person connection to Elon and he may indeed be an arsehole, I don't know. Colonizing mars is a fools dream. TSLA is overvalued by at least 2x.

Musk has more followers than most media outlets have consumers. The media is hardly responsible for people hearing what he says.

You could try not being racist.

> On the other hand, there has to be some capacity for this type of discussion to occur. Musk owns less than 50% of SpaceX, and I generally think employees should have some manner of input into the operations of the company they work for.

The other 50% are not woke.