Elon Musk: The Media Chases Clicks—It’s a Click-Maximizing Machine, Not a Truth Machine

Elon Musk: The media is a click-maximizing machine.

“When you think about a news story about something you know well, how accurate is that news story about something you know well? I think you'll find that it's actually not very accurate.

That's true for everything. There's a desperate quest for clicks. The more crazy the headline is, the more clicks it will get.

This is not to suggest that there aren't true things said by the media, it's just the media is best thought of as a click-maximizing machine, not a truth-maximizing machine.

I think it's best to look at the words that somebody says themselves as opposed to what is written about them.”

VivaTech Paris, May 23, 2024