John Koblin chronicles their conversation in a piece for the New York Observer today:
Randy Stross is a huge douche bag,” said Mr. Musk. Ms. Lacy let out a long, loud belly laugh.“And an idiot,” he continued. More guffawing.” Mr. Musk continued to tee off on Mr. Stross, and wondered aloud how anyone who lived in Silicon Valley could produce such a story. “Well,” said Ms. Lacy, who began to chuckle again, “a lot of people agree with you.” It didn’t take much to know where she stood. “There was a huge outpouring of letters to the editor, and actually, I should point out, that The New York Times printed a retraction,” he continued. “Oh, did they?” she asked. “Of course, when they print retractions, it’s on page 27—like micro-fine,” he said, prompting more laughter from Ms. Lacy. “They actually printed a retraction, yeah.”
In which, he praised Musk for standing up to his detractors, calling it “awesome.” He also noted that the Times’ article was edited and corrected for errors.
But was it really retracted?
Actually no, says Koblin:
A correction—not a retraction—ran and the headline was softened. (It changed from “Only the Rich Can Afford It. Should Taxpayers Back It?” to “Should Taxpayers Back a High-End Electric Carmaker?”)
Koblin also got some eye opening quotes from New York Times’ editors airing their displeasure with Musk and Ms. Lacy:
“I think Sarah Lacy was too busy giggling to do Journalism 101 and call Randy or me for comment to make sure what Elon was saying was accurate,” said Tim O’Brien, the Sunday Business editor of The Times, in an interview. “Because it was not only inaccurate, it was flat-out wrong. We wrote a clarification of the headline. We didn’t retract the story at all; we stood firmly by the story, and I still stand by Randy’s column.” “You can’t help but watch that interview and marvel at the squishy familiarity between Lacy and Musk,” he continued. “And I wonder whether or not some journalistic blinders had popped off.”
While I agree in part, that it’s a little unfair for the Times to completely turn it around on Lacy when it was Musk really lampooning Stross and the Times, her interview style is once again being brought into question. Even her former employers note that she often makes herself the center of interviews. Perhaps, she’s just good at creating buzz around her interviews? What is it she says, “Once you’re lucky, twice you’re good.”
As for Musk, it’s unfortunate that someone as talented as him, would turn to a personal attack to get his point across. Let alone, utter the word “douchebag” as the CEO of a company. Musk and Tesla have been media darlings, with the Stross piece being the exception to the rule. He’s graced the cover of Fortune and was featured, at great length, within GQ. However, this blatant personal attack on Stross could change the tide.
“The press rarely grants an autumn reprise for those it loved in the spring,” is a saying that New York Times columnist Russell Baker made famous, which others often cite when describing the fickle nature of the media. They build you up to take you down and it’s never a good idea to open the door to the inevitable take-down by attacking them.
As Marc Gunther recently told me, Shai Agassi and Better Place are already the new media darlings of the electric car circuit. In part because they have a very charismatic CEO. One that I’ll bet will never be caught uttering the word “douchebag.”
When Ashton Kutcher realized both he and CNN were very close to having 1 million Twitter followers, he was amazed by two things:
That so many people wanted to follow him (currently 884,289)
He had almost as many followers as CNN (currently 935,069)
This led to an impromptu challenge from Kutcher for the Twitter universe: If he beats CNN to 1 million followers, he will “ding dong ditch” Ted Turner’s house:
Kutcher, then realizing that CNN was ready to take him on, had two very interesting observations about Twitter and social media:
He found it amazing that one person can have as big a voice as an entire media company (on Twitter).
After being invited to join Larry King Live to discuss this Twitter showdown, he noted that this is an Internet saga that should be discussed online, not on television.
With both parties closing in on 1 million followers (but CNN still in the lead) it looks like Ted Turner’s house is saved. However, Kutcher has made his point that certain individuals can be just as powerful (if not more) on Twitter as a large news organization.
