Elon Musk says ‘legacy media should worry about its reputation’

Axios business reporter Hope King questioned Musk's reputation on Tuesday in response to a Washington Post report over the weekend that described his behavior as "reckless," leaving people to view him "as slightly less of a genius."

"Elon Musk's reputation is in danger," King said. "All of the macro conditions are against his favor. Market-share for Tesla is down year-over-year. His reputation with Twitter is impacting his reputation when it comes to all of his companies."

In response, Musk tweeted "The legacy media should worry about its reputation. We have only just begun."

Beginning on December 2, a series of internal Twitter documents such as emails, chatlogs and screenshots, were been published every few days detailing the widespread censorship that the social media giant has been party to, including government interference in content moderation.

Musk has hinted that there will be more to come.

The Washington Post piece that King references paints the billionaire, one of the richest people in the world, as sometimes brilliant, sometimes reckless, pointing out that some of his other companies, electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla, spacecraft engineering company SpaceX, and tunnel construction firm The Boring Company, are all not faring so well this year.

"Market share for Tesla [in China] is down year over year, as it is here in the US, so his reputation when it comes to Twitter is impacting his reputation across all of his companies," King said.

She points out that China's market for electric vehicles is the largest in the world, but that criticism of the Asian nation is not going away.

Asked what specifically about his Twitter behavior is harming his other businesses, King responds, "He's talking too much.

"He's leaving open all of this room for critique, for analysis, for the world to weigh in," she adds. "That's where he is showing that he is most vulnerable, because he's making himself so vulnerable."