Elon Musk is apparently tired of “fake news” or perhaps bad press, so he’s creating a new site called Pravda to let the public rate “the core truth” of articles and track credibility scores of journalists, editors and publications.
The interestingly named Pravda, which was also the name of a Russian communist propaganda broadsheet, means “truth” in Russian, and it will be somewhat akin to a Yelp for journalism. Musk, the founder of SpaceX and Tesla, has been frustrated with publications that reported on his businesses, claiming that some headlines distort the truth, such as the safety of his Tesla Model S cars.
The announcement has drawn criticism from the press, with one reporter tweeting out that Musk was slowly turning into a “media-baiting Trump figure screaming irrationally about fake news.”
Thought you’d say that. Anytime anyone criticizes the media, the media shrieks “You’re just like Trump!” Why do you think he got elected in the first place? Because no ones believes you any more. You lost your credibility a long time ago.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 23, 2018
Musk appears to also have second thoughts about the name of the site — his last tweet on the subject suggested the new site be called “You’re Right!” instead. The Telsa CEO also put up a poll, which currently has over 400,000 votes on whether he should do it, with a high majority of over 85 percent in favor.
With Pravda (or You’re Right!) seemingly gaining support from the public, Musk then told reporters to write an article to tell readers not to vote for it, and subsequently tweeted that he was feeling the “best” he’d felt in a while.
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/999450636075778049
