LA Times Editor On Tesla Story: 'Not Defending The Story, Because It Speaks For Itself'

Los Angeles Times recently published a story that highlighted how companies founded by Elon Musk – Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA), SolarCity Corp (NASDAQ: SCTY) and SpaceX – have received about $4.9 billion in government support. Following this, Musk spoke with CNBC and denied that his companies have received “some huge check.”

Brian Thevenot, Los Angeles Times deputy business editor, was recently on CNBC to discuss Musk’s reaction to the article.

Not Defending

“Well, I didn’t hear any criticisms on the facts in the story,” Thevenot said. “I heard a lot of Mr. Musk’s opinions about things that might have been addressed in the story. So, I am not here to defend the story, because it speaks for itself.”

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He continued, “One of the comments that he made was that we said that he got a big $5 billion check. And quite the contrary, we laid out in very detailed fashion where all of the subsidies that we talked about came from, and there’s a list on latimes.com that anybody can go see right now.”

A Business Strategy Story

Thevenot was asked what’s wrong with Elon Musk taking full advantage of subsidies provided by state and Federal governments. He replied, “I don’t know if it’s wrong or right. I think the point of our story was to report on the depth and breadth of it, and let the public debate whether it’s wrong or right.

“I am actually surprised that he had such a sensitive reaction to the story, because – really at its core – it’s basically a business strategy story that’s merely factual.

“And it paints a picture that I think Elon Musk would agree with that says his business strategy is to incubate high-risk, high-tech companies that promote green technology with the help of billions of dollars of government money,” Thevenot concluded.

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