The Political Insider

Elon Musk attacked CNN for posting fake news claiming he had not delivered on his promise to produce ventilators for California hospitals.

Musk: “What I Find Most Surprising is That CNN Still Exists”

In March, Musk promised that he and Tesla would donate over 1,000 ventilators to California hospitals.

On Thursday, CNN produced an article that claimed that Musk had never made good on his promise, claiming that the governor’s office told them “none of the promised ventilators have been received” by the hospitals.

“Despite the claims, none of the ventilators promised by Musk have been delivered to hospitals, according to the governor’s office,” the article reads. It also includes a statement from the California governor’s Office of Emergency Services, saying that “the Administration is communicating every day with hospitals across the state about their ventilator supply and to date we have not heard of any hospital system that has received a ventilator directly from Tesla or Musk.”

Musk proceeded to shoot back in a series of tweets.

“What I find most surprising is that CNN still exists,” Musk responded in a quick barb.

Musk then posted a number of screenshots from emails that directly contradicted CNN’s claims.

One shows a Tesla employee asking Phillip Franks, Director of System Operations and Support Services at the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, if “these ventilators went into use” by the hospitals.

“They worked great during testing today,” Franks replied. “We will put these to use tomorrow. Thanks!”

A second email is shown from Tom Parker, the CEO of Mammoth Hospital.

“I add… my thanks for the generous gift to our hospital from Mr. Musk and Tesla,” the email reads. “These ventilators will be quickly deployed in our hospital in anticipation of the coming wave of patients who will be suffering from the most severe effects of COVID-19.”

More Fake News!

Matt Dornic, a reporter for CNN, responded to Musk that it was “weird to attack CNN  for what the CA governor’s office said – especially when your own spokespeople at Tesla didn’t respond to requests for comment. Seems like your outrage should, uh, be directed at the entity that made the claim, not the one that reported it.”

However, Musk wrote back that the hospitals had clearly acknowledged the donations on Twitter – CNN clearly didn’t do their research!

Now CNN’s excuse is that they weren’t the “correct” ventilators. In an updated article, they said that of the hospitals they spoke to, they had received bilevel positive airway pressure (biPAP) or continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines, not “full ventilators.”

But if these didn’t count as ventilators, then why do the hospital teams refer to them as such? If bilevel machines can deliver ventilation as their article acknowledges, why is Musk wrong?

CNN as usual wants to save face and not get caught up in their lies.