Tesla CEO Elon Musk being interviewed by The Economist on July 22 (local time). [Captured from The Economist news]

Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently engaged in a fierce war of words with the editor-in-chief of the influential British publication 'The Economist.'

According to reports from major media outlets including Fox News, the interview conducted on the 22nd (local time) unfolded as a clash: the legacy media posed questions framed by specific political agendas, while Musk countered by exposing media bias and the true sentiment of the public.

"The media is hated more than I am"... Musk's direct hit

Zanny Minton Beddoes, editor-in-chief of The Economist, brought up Musk’s recent political remarks and his support for right-wing political parties in Europe, asking questions that implied he was advocating for the "far-right."

Musk immediately fired back, directly challenging the biased framework of mainstream media by asking, "Secure borders, safe cities, and sensible government spending—which of those three things is 'far-right' or 'extreme'?"

Referring to his 250 million followers on X (formerly Twitter), he added, "You may think people hate me, but you need to realize that the public actually despises and hates you, the mainstream media, far more."

Furthermore, Musk pointed out that while mainstream media outlets style themselves as the "guardians of justice," the public feels extreme fatigue and distrust toward their arbitrary censorship of news and biased reporting.

Serious controversy over U.S. media bias

Conservative media outlets and critics in the United States analyze this clash as a stark example of the chronic bias inherent in the American mainstream media.

Fox News remarked, "The mainstream media attempts to discredit even demands for neutral law enforcement, border control, and fiscal responsibility by slapping them with provocative labels like 'far-right' or 'racist' if they don't align with their agenda." They added, "Elite media organizations in New York or Washington fail to recognize that their perspectives are significantly out of touch with the 'common sense' of the general public."

Surveys by organizations such as Gallup consistently rank "mainstream newspapers and TV news" as among the least trusted institutions by Americans. Musk’s remarks precisely pinpointed this widespread public distrust of the media in American society.

One U.S. critic assessed the situation, stating, "This interview was not a hearing on Elon Musk himself, but a showdown between the elite media, which attempts to indoctrinate the public through biased framing, and Musk, who exposed the hypocrisy of the legacy media."

Reporter Yohi Lim