Elon Musk, Semafor allegations dig ‘conflict of interest’ rabbit hole

On Nov. 18th, Semafor, the global news company, released an announcement stating “no reason in particular, but you can also follow us on,” and then listed a number of their social media platforms.

No reason in particular, but you can also follow us on:

YouTube https://t.co/vzf0vYlh9M
TikTok https://t.co/Y5jAFLFYex
Instagram https://t.co/WwnF6wQ5A8
Flipboard https://t.co/zHDvxnjI3H
Facebook https://t.co/bEoctknpeG

And sign up for our newsletters:https://t.co/MyjrC3js7A

— Semafor (@semafor) November 18, 2022

On Nov. 23rd, Elon Musk responded to that tweet, claiming that Semafor is owned by Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), and alleged a “massive” conflict of interest in Semafor’s reporting.

Semafor is owned by SBF. This is a massive conflict of interest in your reporting. Journalistic integrity is 🗑️. pic.twitter.com/1AB6KReJUj

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 23, 2022

In response to Musk’s allegation, Semafor Editor-in-chief, Ben Smith, acknowledged the investment from SBF but claimed that this information is disclosed each time Semafor covers SBF content. Within the same response, Smith also claimed that Musk and “many others” had taken an investment from SBF.

Like you and many others, we took an investment from him. We have covered him aggressively, and disclose it every time we write about him, including here https://t.co/7yS5166PtP.

— Ben Smith (@semaforben) November 23, 2022

Technical analyst, Duo Nine, also joined the debate to contribute his opinion.

As the public debate steadily gained engagement, entrepreneur and futurist author, Steve Faktor highlighted a video created by the renowned internet detective, Coffeezilla, which questioned Bloomberg’s integrity.

Another huge conflict of interest coming to light at Bloomberg.https://t.co/c6MzbVf9m5

— Steve Faktor (@ideafaktory) November 23, 2022

At the end of the video – in an interview with Marco Hodis – it was revealed that Bloomberg’s journalists had access to the FTX fraud story in early July but withheld the story because it would be “bad for business.”