CNN isn’t just getting the ire of the president and politicians. Elon Musk is also dumping on them after they falsely reported that his company did not send out ventilators that he’d promised:
Three weeks after Tesla CEO Elon Musk said he had obtained more than 1,000 ventilators to help California hospitals treating patients infected with the coronavirus, the governor’s office says none of the promised ventilators have been received by hospitals https://t.co/u3NNpxbvsN
— CNN (@CNN) April 16, 2020
Musk was not happy and responded to the reporting “What I find most surprising is that CNN still exists.”
What I find most surprising is that CNN still exists
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 16, 2020
He went on to provide a list of hospitals that had received the ventilators he’d sent them:
Partial list of hospitals to which Tesla sent ventilators pic.twitter.com/sfI6yuUbrM
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 16, 2020
These were based on direct requests from their ICU wards, with exact specifications of each unit provided before shipment
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 16, 2020
CNN’s head of strategic communications responded to Musk saying “Weird to attack CNN for what the CA governor’s office said…”
Weird to attack CNN for what the CA governor’s office said – especially when your own spokespeople at Tesla didn’t respond to requests for comment. Seems like your outrage should, uh, be directed at the entity that made the claim, not the one that reported it. U new to this?
— Matt Dornic (@mdornic) April 16, 2020
Musk responded, noting they could have done a little more research before publishing the story: “Perhaps you are unaware that Twitter has a search function? The hospitals themselves acknowledged receipt of ventilators.”
Perhaps you are unaware that Twitter has a search function? The hospitals *themselves* acknowledged receipt of ventilators.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 16, 2020