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Elon Musk calls for accountability in media, donates to PolitiFact

National

In this Feb. 6, 2018, photo, Elon Musk, founder, CEO of SpaceX and CEO of Tesla Inc., speaks at a news conference after the Falcon 9 SpaceX heavy rocket launched successfully from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP)

By Josie Hollingsworth May 24, 2018

Elon Musk is a new member of PolitiFact’s Truth Squad.

Here’s how it all went down:

Frustrated with an article about Tesla, entrepreneur Elon Musk (of Tesla, SpaceX, PayPal) had an idea May 23: He’d "create a site where the public can rate the core truth of any article & track the credibility score over time of each journalist, editor & publication."

Going to create a site where the public can rate the core truth of any article & track the credibility score over time of each journalist, editor & publication. Thinking of calling it Pravda …
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 23, 2018

Many Twitter users went on to reply to Musk’s tweet mentioning PolitiFact. Mark Boyle said, "It's great that @elonmusk is interested in supporting reality checks amid the #fakenews crisis, but crowdsourcing may not be the best way to do it. Supporting orgs like @snopes and @PolitiFact would be a better way to go."

Sign up for PolitiFact texts

We also believe in holding people accountable to their words. We use scorecards for various politicians and pundits to track their claims over time. So we let him know.

A site that rates "the core truth" and tracks "the credibility score over time" of comments by politicians and pundits? Hey @elonmusk, we sort of do that? Become a member at https://t.co/gKuJDY7bx6. Thanks for your interest! https://t.co/8hXaGeCZnh
— PolitiFact (@PolitiFact) May 23, 2018

Musk, turns out, is all about PolitiFact.

Yeah, I think you do great work
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 23, 2018

He even donated.

Done
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 24, 2018

He used this link to donate to PolitiFact (we named it after him.) http://bit.ly/politifactelon

It’s housed by Poynter.org, our owner, a non-profit school for journalists.

Interested in learning more about PolitiFact’s mission and ways to help? Become a member of the Truth Squad! We are mainly supported by small contributions from readers who care.