21st Century Fox CEO James Murdoch was asked at Code 2018 about whether Tesla Motors Inc., where he sits on the board of directors, is covered fairly by the business news media.
Here is an excerpt:
Dan Benton: Hi. Dan Benton. I’m over here. I’m a public market tech investor and I have a big position in Tesla. You are on the board of Tesla. Do you think that Elon and the company are treated fairly by the press, number one, and number two, do you think it’s an effective countermeasure to engage in 3 a.m. Tweet storms?
James Murdoch: Well, look. I would say one thing about the press, and no offense to all the press in the the room but if you ask yourself the question, if there’s something that you actually have direct knowledge of and know something about, and you read an article about it in the newspaper or on a website or wherever it is, how many times is it perfectly accurate? Never, right? Yet, we look at all the other stuff that we have no direct knowledge of and we go, “Oh, well, The New York Times said X, Y, or Z.” Or Peter Kafka said it, it must okay-
Peter Kafka: Probably.
James Murdoch: I think there is sometimes a problem in terms of the way to business press covers all companies. And they get interested in a particular subject and they maybe lose the forest for the trees, or they want to write about politics when they should be-
But it’s fine when the business press writes how great his cars are.
Wait. I’m not … There are challenges in business coverage generally. And the way that the company and Elon will respond to that, it’s really his call.
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