Less than 48 hours after his 60 Minutes interview aired, Elon Musk has realized that it wasn’t exactly the positive PR masterpiece for the ages he may have expected. As a result, the CEO, with the help of his favorite pro-Tesla blog electrek is now engaged in damage control.
Just two days after an interview with Musk aired in which he said he did not respect the SEC and appeared to admit that he is still calling all the shots regardless of who the chairman of the board is at Tesla, Elon is taking exception with how the 60 Minutes piece was edited and aired.
It was a two-pronged assault on 60 Minutes on Tuesday, when Musk tweeted out his contempt for the way one of his answers was apparently edited…
This is a very misleading edit. Please post the full transcript where I complete the sentence.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 11, 2018
… right around the time that electrek published a piece claiming it had “obtained the full transcript of the interview” and alleging that one of Musk’s answers was edited. Reportedly, when asked about new Board chairperson Robyn Denholm being handpicked, Musk actually responded:
“Yes…handpicked her? I asked for a chair, and the rest of the board was very supportive of that.”
“I mean that’s not realistic because I am the largest shareholder in the company and a very high percentage of the shareholders support me and the company. So essentially I could just pull for a shareholder vote and get anything that I want provided I could get support for at least a 1/3 of the other shareholders. Not certain, but likely. At the end of the day the shareholders pull the vote.”
The blog took the opportunity to take a shot at 60 Minutes, as well as to fawn over Musk and invite him onto their own podcast:
Indeed, that edit was misleading. They made it sound like Musk saw Denholm as a puppet he handpicked to satisfy the SEC while he could do whatever he wants because he is the largest shareholder.
It’s true that Musk has a lot of leeway as the largest shareholder and like I wrote yesterday, this is not a Steve Jobs and Apple in the 1990s situation. But the full comments are much more reasonable than what 60 Minutes made them sound like.
I don’t know why he does TV interviews where they can edit whole conversations like that. It’s such an outdated format.
That’s why I much prefer live podcasting. It feels a lot more like a real conversation.
Elon, you are always welcome on the Electrek Podcast. We won’t edit you.
Of course, if the blog wanted an “unedited, uncut” Musk, they should do as one Twitter user suggested, and release the full transcript in its entirety.
Electrek claims to have the “full transcript” from Musk’s 60 Minutes interview. So, uh, let’s see it. Were there any other “edits” made? https://t.co/FycF85braD
— Quoth the Raven (@QTRResearch) December 11, 2018
After all, Musk himself claimed that 60 Minutes had “several hours of interview time”.
60 Mins actually had several hours of interview time, which they distilled to 14 mins. Many stories could been told with that time. This was accurate as viewed from an Upper East Side Manhattan dinner party.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 11, 2018
As for his most provocative and incendiary comments about the SEC – which found that Musk had engaged in securities fraud over the summer – potentially being another editing trick, we’ll let electrek offer the unedited truth:
…Musk definitely said during the interview that he doesn’t respect the SEC, that wasn’t a tricky edit…
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