Elon Musk Says This Is A 'Real Problem' When It Comes To The Media

Tesla, Inc. TSLA CEO Elon Musk has of late been very vocal in his criticism of the mainstream media for being biased, while also throwing his weight behind what he describes as free speech. It was the latter quest that pushed him to launch into a tirade against Twitter, Inc. TWTR, which culminated in him picking up a passive stake in the social media platform and then joining its board.

Lack of Trust Troubling: Musk on Friday suggested in reply to a quote tweet that he finds that American's lack of trust in news outlets as a "real problem." His response came as Twitter user @waitbutwhy made a point that even the Wall Street Journal, which comes closest to a "universally trusted news source" is not trusted by most Americans.

The deduction was from an infographic compiled by YouGov based on a survey that showed the extent to which Americans, split across party allegiance, trusted the different media outlets. The survey showed that Weather Channel and Wall Street Journal were among the most trusted media by Democrats. Republicans had top votes for Fox News followed by the Weather Channel, but the degree of trust was only moderate.

It's a real problem

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 8, 2022

Musk Takes On WaPo Yet Again: Separately, Musk responded to the Washington Post for the publication's op-ed piece that criticized the Tesla CEO for his involvement with Twitter. The media outlet ran an editorial that said, following Musk's appointment to Twitter's board, there's a need for social media platforms to be regulated to prevent rich people from controlling the channels of communication of people.

Musk responded by saying lmaooo – an internet slang used for indicating that something is very funny.

Lmaooo

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 8, 2022

This is not the first time Musk is having a run-in with WaPo, which is owned by Amazon, Inc. AMZN  founder Jeff Bezos. He had earlier called out the publication for using paywalls for its online articles.

In an email to the media outlet, Musk previously suggested Bezos was its "puppetmaster."

Related Link: As Elon Musk Joins Twitter Board, Analyst Sees 'Strategic Initiatives' Ahead; This Is 'Just Start of Musk's Involvement'

Photo: Courtesy of NASA Kennedy on Flickr