Far from it: Tesla was the one that came out and said they had the safest car on the road. Even when NHTSA said it wasn't appropriate, Tesla flaunted a 5.4 star rating. Tesla supporters came out and said the first fire was a fluke. They came out and said the second is a fluke. Now the third time is a conspiracy?

It's possible that there's an engineering flaw or issue with new components that underlies the problem. That is a possibility. To deny it is to be delusional. We don't know what's wrong yet, and denying the problem exists prolongs the discovery process

Tesla, Apple, Google, etc... They're sexy, and in the public mind, so they drive traffic. Media used to be about information, but now it's about clicks and link bait.

Good thing we have HN defending them at all cost then.

I'm sure Boeing would say the same thing. And I think there were only two incidents with the Dreamliner!

"It seems like the media is trying to find anything to publicly put them down."

The media will put anyone or anything down even if they love them. Just ask any of the Kennedys.

And when they are done doing that (after they have milked all they can) they will then progress to analysis and stories on "the story" - why it was done - was it fair to do so. Etc. In other words coverage on the coverage. And if there was no coverage there will be stories on why there is no coverage and how the issue should but wasn't covered.

It's newsworthy.

PR drive by the big three auto firms. Possibly the oil companies too. Tesla is starting to become a threat.

I imagine the extent of the flurry of news reporting correlates to the dollars spent on advertising in each individual outlet.

It's painfully clear from the tenor of the writing and the selection of facts that they are trying to paint Teslas as being unsafe, un-roadworthy and electric cars as being a bad idea in general.

Relevant: http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html

big oil