Tesla CEO Elon Musk Jokes About Quitting His Job, And The Media Bought It

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk made one of his famous jokes claiming he is considering quitting his job to become an influencer. And surprisingly, the mainstream media took his joke at face value and ran articles claiming Musk was quitting his CEO position.

Elon Musk, unlike most CEOs, brings a certain level of humor to his job. Not only that, but Musk also occasionally likes to take part in elaborate pranks which more than once have drawn him the ire of “serious” people all around the world.

The most famous of his pranks was his 2018 April fools tweet where he wrote “despite intense efforts to raise money, including a last-ditch mass sale of Easter Eggs, we are sad to report that Tesla has gone completely and totally bankrupt.”

Musk followed the tweet with a photo of him sleeping on the ground and a message that he “was found passed out against a Tesla Model 3, surrounded by Teslaquilla bottles, the tracks of dried tears still visible on his cheeks.”

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Everyone who has followed Musk and his companies even for a day knew Musk’s tweet was a joke; had a bit of a chuckle, and moved on. However, some in the media ran clickbait articles with the title “Elon Musk says Tesla has gone bankrupt”.

However, this wasn’t the last of the media’s clickbait behavior. Over the years there have been many cynical attempts to attack Musk and his companies. And today this behavior has been repeated once again.

Late last night, Musk sent out a tweet jokingly claiming that he is considering quitting his job to become a full-time online influencer. Of course, Musk is not going to abandon his lifetime goal of transitioning the world to sustainable energy to become an online personality.

However, Reuters took this tweet and run an article titled “Musk says he’s thinking of quitting his job”. Reuters went on in the article to draw a connection between Musk’s decision to sell 10 percent of his Tesla stock and his latest tweet.

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This goes to show another issue currently facing mainstream media: their hypocritical and often times lazy approach to covering recent events is costing them dearly. Informal sources of information like Podcasts and the like continue to gain massive popularity as the previous news outlets we used to rely on have begun to tumble in ratings.

Tesla enthusiast Sawyer Merritt saw Reuters’ article and sent out a tweet with the caption “here we go” which Musk saw. Musk simply replied to Reuters with a couple of smiley faces.

Articles similar to the one Reuters run will probably be repeated in the future and we will be here with our critic. Make sure to visit our site torquenews.com/Tesla regularly for the latest updates.

So what do you think? Disappointed that a venerable organization such as Reuters ran a blatantly clickbait article about Tesla? Also, do you have a favorite media outlet you go to find trustworthy news? Let me know your thoughts down in the comments below.

For more information check out: Tesla Giga Shanghai November Production Numbers Reveal Growth Stabilizing After An Incredible Run Also, see Tesla Giga Texas Construction Progress: Almost Completed

Tinsae Aregay has been following Tesla and The evolution of the EV space on a daily basis for several years. He covers everything about Tesla from the cars to Elon Musk, the energy business, and autonomy. Follow Tinsae on Twitter at @TinsaeAregay for daily Tesla news.