Threat to fire PR firm over New York Times article

From:: Elon Musk
Date:: July 20, 2006
To:: Tesla's PR firm PCGC; cc Martin Eberhard and Mike Harrigan

Partial text. Only these passages were published; [...] marks a gap.

I was incredibly insulted and embarrassed by the NY Times article [...] where I am not merely unmentioned, but where Martin is actually referred to as the chairman. [...] If anything like this happens again, please consider the PCGC relationship with Tesla to end immediately upon publication of such a piece. Please ensure that the NYT publishes a correction as soon as possible.

About this email

After a New York Times piece on the Roadster omitted him and called Eberhard chairman, Musk tells Tesla's PR agency he was insulted and embarrassed, demands a correction, and warns the relationship will end if it happens again.

Notes

From emails filed in Eberhard v. Musk (2009) and reproduced as images by Business Insider; only article-text quotations could be retrieved. The article says the email was cc'd to Eberhard and Harrigan; the primary addressee is inferred from the reference to 'the PCGC relationship' and should be checked against the exhibit.

Where it came from

Court record; attribution widely reported.

Tesla, executive & internal. Tags: press, founding-era, new-york-times, credit, eberhard

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