Let’s stop writing about every Elon Musk tweet

Jason Koebler of 404 Media writes about the tech media’s obsession with writing stories around when Elon Musk tweets.

Koebler writes, “In the 18 hours since Musk has dashed out a few errant thoughts about possibly banning Apple devices at his companies, Google News has indexed roughly 100 different articles about the tweets, most of which say almost the exact same thing.

“There are people hitting the news: “Elon Musk threatens to ban iPhones and Macs at his companies,” “Elon Musk threatens to ban Apple devices from his companies over OpenAI partnership,” “Elon Musk is ranting about Apple and OpenAI on X,” “Elon Musk Just Canceled iPhones,” “Elon Musk warns he will BAN Apple devices from his firms after new AI deal to integrate ChatGPT into iPhones and iPads – calling it a ‘security violation,’” and many variations of this.

“There are people taking the finance angle: “Apple Stock Down As OpenAI Deal Prompts Elon Musk to Ban iPhones,” (it is actually up, by a lot, and was only down briefly in after-market trading) and “Elon Musk’s Stunning AI Warning Triggers SHIB, XRP Armies’ Hot Discussion.”

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.