1/ A thread on just how truly incompetent, downright lazy, disturbingly biased, or outright corrupt much of the US media is. The focus is $TSLA's CEO, @elonmusk. Bear with me...

2/ Elon Musk is an expert on everything. EVERYTHING. Most recently, and epidemiologist. On January 31, Musk, with 30 million+ followers, tweeted this:

3/ This went on for weeks, well into March, with Musk reinforcing & doubling down. One example among many:

4/ (No, Elon, kids are not immune. They're mostly asymptomatic, perhaps, but fully capable of passing the virus along to others, including parents & grandparents.)

Another example:

5/ Then came the day when health authorities from six California counties ordered that all non-essential facilities shut their doors immediately. What did Musk do with his $TSLA plant? https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2020-03-16/coronavirus-tesla-fremont-factory-musk

6/ Finally, several days later, after public pressure began to build, the Fremont plant scaled down. Who knows how many Fremont employees were infected, or spread infection, in the interim. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/two-tesla-employees-positive-covid-19-coronavirus

7/ Now, there's a story. Reported by some. @russ1mitchell. @RMac18. A few courageous others. But Musk instantly pivoted to make sure most of the media told a different story.

8/ The USA's worst mayor, of course, swallowed this hook, line, and sinker. As for the usually formidable Nate Silver, I'm not sure what to think. Sarcastic? Or suckered?

9/ By the way, who in politics most resembles Elon Musk? From Aug 2017: https://seekingalpha.com/instablog/37229846-montana-skeptic/5034237-musk-trump-separated-birth

10/ So, naturally:

11/ Musk procures 1,000 or so "ventilators" from China. And suddenly the press is gushing all over him. (many links upcoming). He delivers "ventilators" to a hospital in the Borough of Queens, NY. The grateful medicos thank him on Twitter &, of course, he retweets:

12/ But, these were not ventilators. They were CPAP machines, and outdated ones at that.

13/ (Before I go further, compare how many likes Elon Musk's retweet received compared with the tweet pointing out these were outdated CPAP machines.)

14/ Naturally, glowing & adoring stories about the magnificent charity and life-saving celerity of Elon Musk started popping up everywhere. With not one damned mention of Musk's earlier history on this issue.

15/ Musk's role, indeed, given his 32 million followers, of downplaying the dangers & consequently contributing to widespread nonchalance. Of refusing to close his factory & allowing for concentrated incubation & spread.

16/ I called out @audpants on this earlier today. Will she follow up to at least note they were CPAP machines? TBD. At least she's contacted me. I then called out @RealBenGilbert for his idiotic reporting. Nothing so far. Lazy? Dumb? Corrupt? You decide.

17/ Here's the thing. With Trump, we get endless reports about how he is *finally* taking meaningful steps, after earlier downplaying the danger. Just and fair, even if reporters might note all the heat he took for shutting down travel to & from China in late January.

18/ But with Musk, no mention of is prior history on this issue, which is, if anything, even more egregiously ill-informed, and arrogant than Trump's.

19/ Take a look at the reporting from our magnificent US media: https://twitter.com/Trumpery45/status/1245487703400910848

20/ Final note: where in the hell is any reporting from @wsj's @timkhiggins on this? The guy is busy in the final galley review of his book on Elon Musk. Does access journalism outweigh honest reporting? His recent articles have been truly disgusting in their clever bias.