The first 12 months of CNBC's top coverage on the Tesla – 2016 Tesla Flashbacks

June 2, 2019 by Zachary Shahan

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While I was working on this Tesla flashback about Morgan Stanley's Adam Jonas, I had the idea to take a closer look at the media that covers most prolifically, in my opinion, Tesla – CNBC.

CNBC is actually an interesting case because it covers a lot Tesla subjects. It may publish more on Tesla than CleanTechnica, including stock information, software updates, production plans, and so on. The result is that CNBC's "analytics" and customer forecasts (which are generally very negative) are scattered in the middle of matter-fact, news without controversy.

However, if you look at the coverage over time, you can get some interesting information about CNBC's background. I went into this with a somewhat open mind. According to last week's weekly scans, #Pravduh, I knew that CNBC was negatively biased on Tesla, but I was wondering if that would also show the case in this new 2016-focused analysis. Spoiler: Yes that's the case. But we will come back to it at the end.

For this piece, the methodology was simple: I searched for "tesla cnbc" in blocks of one month from January 2016. Then I pulled the 3 best results for each of these months. I have either summarized the items from the list below, or simply quoted the titles if they were sufficiently clear. Moreover, when the videos appeared at the top or almost, I decided to include them, but also to summarize the 3 best articles. In a few cases, I included bonus items that were not in the top 3, but that also seemed to attract attention. Look at the results below. (Note: I put additional comments in parentheses or brackets, as the British say, after some titles and summaries).

January 2016

1. A simple story about Tesla's new self-service parking capabilities.
2. Story of a small fire in the Tesla factory in Fremont. (Why is it really important or relevant, who knows?)
3. A story about the disastrous situation of Apple. (This is a confusing result.) In Google's search results, there is an excerpt from a new article on Tesla – it's unclear who is behind the strange search result. – CNBC's or Google's (or a drop-down list, of course) – but there's no mention of Tesla at all anywhere on the 2016 article page. in related articles or anything.)

February 2016

1. Summary of Tesla's shareholder report for the fourth quarter, focusing on a loss of 87 ¢ / loss instead of "expected" earnings of 10 ¢ / share. (Despite the "unexpected loss", which was unexpectedly due to a consensus estimate from Thomson Reuters, the Tesla stock price has "surged", apparently due to the "high" forecast for 2016 from 80,000 to 90,000 deliveries.)
2. Video: "This is the Tesla Model S for kids."
3. An article on how people can book a $ 35,000 Tesla Model 3.
4. "Elon Musk personally cancels the Tesla order from the" rude "customer."

March 2016

1. A video on the unveiling of Tesla Model 3 and Ben Kallo, an analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co., presenting his expectations
2. A video of Andrew Left of Citron Research explaining why he sold short Tesla [TSLA] (Notably, Left and Citron Research reversed short circuit Tesla at go long in the second half of 2018 and included 4 of my cards in his letter explaining why.)
3. Story of a Tesla Model S owner protesting Singapore's carbon surcharge.
4. A video on "The Pain Coming to Tesla?" Is centered on Morgan Stanley's Adam Jonas conjecture. (Yes, this Adam Jonas.)
5. A survey on the possibility of reserving a $ 1,000 reservation for a model 3 (survey results are not displayed).
6. A simple article on the opening of reservations by Tesla for Model 3.

April 2016

1. "Why does Tesla's Model 3 meet expectations" (Hmm, yes, why?)
2. 'Tesla recalls 2700 model X cars'
3. "The demand for Model 3 raises a key question for Tesla" The "key question" was: "Will the company raise billions of dollars to expand its capacity?"
4. "The short interest for Tesla reaches a record" (Bonus – because it made me smile.)
5. "200,000 reasons not to buy a Tesla" (Bonus – because it made me smile and shake my head.)

May 2016

1. "Tesla Announces First Quarter Results" (It seems like it's a simple, straightforward, no-frills way to titrate quarterly report articles.)
2. "Jim Chanos: I'm Tesla Short" (What else do you need to know?)
3. "Elon Musk: Tesla paid $ 55 an hour to paint mill builders" Why this news? Because a previous article from Mercury News said that Tesla paid them $ 5 an hour, which pushed people out. Elon Musk corrected the recording on Twitter and CNBC turned it into an article. Unfortunately, I imagine that some people still think that Tesla pays its workers horribly because of this original story. (That's how people like AOC get excited about Tesla.)
4. There was also an article on Tesla and SolarCity that burned money and contained a video titled "Cracks in Elon's Empire" (Lions, Tigers and Bears, oh my God!)

June 2016

1. "Tesla shares the crater while Wall Street reacts to SolarCity's offer" (Lions, Tigers and Bears, oh my god!)
2. "Billionaire Ron Baron Bet Tesla is One of the World's Largest Companies"
3. "Cramer: Jay Leno's shocking wake-up call on Tesla." In the interview, Leno said, "I do not understand why people are attacking this car, it is made in America by Americans, it is built locally, you know we are becoming like the British – we love the noble chess the rewards. "Lenco also compared:" Leno compared Tesla CEO Elon Musk to big legends like Thomas Edison or Henry Ford for his ability to produce cars against everyone. "I was always looking for a scary awakening Tesla, not only because of the title but also of this first line of the article: "But it was the recognition of the underlying gloom that prevailed within the American corporate foundation Cramer." it turns out that the hidden point until you find the end of the article is this: "So, if the success of entrepreneurs like Elon Musk is ignored, the market fellow is clearly defeated The gloom has permeated the stocks for so long; many investors forget that everything can even go up. "I suggest you use Jay's words, not as a call to buy stock, but to remind yourself that becoming too pessimistic is at odds with reality and that progress is worthwhile to be celebrated, "said Cramer. "(Hmm, talk about not just burying the lede but trying to kill it.)

July 2016

1. "A rare glimpse into Tesla's gigafactory" (This is not exactly a Tesla CleanTechnica Factory Tourbut it's something.)
2. "Tesla says that Fortune is" fundamentally incorrect "on the autopilot, after the crash of the Model S" (CNBC covers the debate, does not choose a party because it does not have any opinion because it does not know not exercise its logic to solve basic math or logic problems .. Ah, old ideals of a robotic press with horrible skills of deduction.)
3. A long story about the Tesla Master Plan, part two – of course, CNBC must work in the concern of profitability, the quality of the vehicles, the insinuations of Tesla Autopilot is not sure, and questions about the realism of the second Tesla master plan; Not to mention that Tesla vehicles had the best safety ratings (in history), Tesla owners were more satisfied with their vehicles than owners of other cars (according to Consumer Reports), and the fact that Tesla had perfectly established his first master plan.
4. I do not make the connection with that, but the next article was somebody who said that Elon Musk was Tesla's "greatest weakness" – it's so absurd that it's depressing.

August 2016

1. "Tesla: Is it going to kill the demand for oil? Not quite "(Surprised by the title?) This was a guest article from the Investment Manager at GAM for Energy Stocks.It was a very good article, like an article you'll find on CleanTechnica, and a even typo – "Still, the question of how the world will change once electric car sales begin to take off will cause surprisingly little interest." Honestly, it seems so misplaced on CNBC that I'm not very confused – it was a sponsored message – but there is no indication of that.)
2. "Marc Faber: Tesla shares go to $ 0" (Oh my god, Lions, tigers and bears! Sounds familiar?)
3. Video: "Is it time to short Tesla?" (Our friend Mark Spiegel.)
4. Video: "Does Tesla have problems?" (Lions, tigers and bears, oh my god!)
5. Video: "Tesla's autopilot car crashes" (CRASH !!! NO !!! Scary. These cars must be dangerous, right?)

For some reason, there were no more articles from CNBC Tesla in August 2016 according to Google. ? Maybe Google has also fallen ill with FUD. ?

September 2016

1. Video: "Morgan Freeman Stock Purchase: Tesla"
2. Video: "Cowen: sell Tesla"
3. Tesla said Mobileye hesitated after teaching the automaker how to make its own cameras
4. Tesla autopilot receives update as security debate swirls
5. "A trader's plan to earn $ 12.6 million by betting on Tesla"
6. Bonus: "Luxury car makers at Tesla: we come for you" (this included because, three years later, the title is hilarious.) Not only do luxury automakers not "come" for Tesla, but they have Completely embarrassed by Silicon In the luxury auto sector, Tesla dominated the luxury car segment, as I recently indicated: "13 incredible sales milestones for Tesla (+17 charts).")
7. Bonus: "A Chinese company hackers Tesla car remotely" (Scary, huh? Does not have to be a safe car to own.)
8. Bonus: "A Dutchman dies in a Tesla crash. firefighters feared the electrocution "(unfortunate, and scary, of course.)
9. Bonus: "Millennials shares love to buy" (included because I plan to write on this topic for months.)

October 2016

1. Video: "Elon Musk responds to Coal's CEO who called Tesla" fraud "" (For the record, this coal CEO also threatened one of our writers – I think in 2016 too.)
2. Video: "Tesla becomes autonomous"
3. Video: "The CEO of the mining sector:" Tesla is a fraud "»
4. "Tesla vehicles in the making now have a complete self-driving equipment"
5. Elon Musk said, "This is not Tesla against Uber. These are the people against Uber "
6. "Tesla presents a video of a fully autonomous car that could pick you up anywhere in the country"

November 2016

1. "Why does Jay Leno want you to root for Tesla"
2. Google title: "Billionaire Ron Baron Tesla is an electric car manufacturer" (seriously – this is the title posted on Google). Article title: "Billionaire Ron Baron: I could win 30 to 50 times my money on Tesla over the next 15 years"
3. "Musk got what he wanted in the Tesla-SolarCity deal – and the investors?"

December 2016

1. "The Tesla autopilot seems to" predict "the accident ahead of him"
2. Tesla recalls charge adapters after overheating
3. "Tesla owner sues in California, calling for sudden acceleration"

In the end, let's count negatives and positives and neutrals. I will exclude bonus items because it was clearly subjective choices.

There were 23 negative stories, 13 positive stories and 12 neutral stories.

There were also clear models. The focus was repeatedly on short sellers, as they offered the most insightful and unbiased vision of the company. There were also many safety concerns, and nothing says Tesla has the safest vehicles ever tested by the NHTSA or autopilot, saving lives. CNBC seemed happy to launch fraud complaints, $ 0 / share forecast for Tesla (bankruptcy) and other negative insinuations. He also presented some of the most optimistic cases from time to time.

Much more could be said, but in the end, what else should I say?

Help others learn about the rest of Tesla's story, the story told by CNBC is not very good. If you need help, I know a good little clean tech site that brings together many more pieces of the puzzle.

Incidentally, this video was uploaded to YouTube in 2016.

Keywords: cnbc, Elon Musk, Pravduh, SolarCity, Tesla, Tesla autopilot, Tesla financial information, Tesla model 3, Tesla S model, Tesla short sellers, Tesla solar, Tesla stock