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Source: Lao Yu said casually
Over the past decade, Elon Musk has almost become a recognized person to “change the world”.From Tesla, SpaceX, the original Twitter, to brain-computer interfaces and Starlinks, Musk has become the embodiment of technological innovation, a hero in the free market, and even a leader in human exploration of outer space.
However, from 2024 to 2025, the Wall Street Journal launched a series of 14-month in-depth investigations into Musk, which revealed his indescribable behavior in corporate governance, political activities, international transactions and media manipulation.
The Wall Street Journal just won the Pulitzer Prize for this batch of reports, and the award was “exposed the serious problem between power, interests and public responsibility of one of the most powerful tech figures of the times.”
This is a victory of a news investigation, revealing a fact to the public: Musk is not a savior, he is just a person who is using the information discourse power and institutional loopholes he has mastered to make money crazy.
In the Wall Street Journal about MuskIn the long report of “Inside Elon Musk’s Warped Workplace”, the reporter interviewed 34 current or former employees of four companies, including Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink and X.These people describe a highly “private” management system, including Musk’s emotions, hobbies, sleep habits and even sudden whims, which directly affect the company’s strategy and employee fate.
The report pointed out that Musk often issued instructions via email or Slack at 3 a.m., demanding “immediate execution”; some executives were fired on the spot for “making Musk feel disrespected at board meetings multiple times”; at SpaceX’s Texas base, a female employee was humiliated for dressing “deemed not like an engineer.”
In Musk’s company, “either live on your knees or get out” has become an informal code for employees.
This set of reports not only reveals Musk’s role as a “terror mentor” in the workplace, but also reflects his nearly pathological pursuit of “absolute control” of employees.
Since Musk acquired Twitter in 2022, he claimed to build it into a “bastion of freedom of speech”, but what the Wall Street Journal investigation shows is a completely different fact.
The report “How Musk’s Takeover of Twitter Amplified Conspiracies and Silenced Critics” pointed out that internal data confirmed that Musk personally ordered the ban on hundreds of accounts criticizing him, including some New York Times reporters.
During the 2024 US midterm elections, X Platform significantly pushed far-right content about “vote fraud” and suppressed posts related to the Democratic Party’s voting mobilization; Musk has close ties with many far-right social media opinion leaders (such as Jordan Peterson and Tucker Carlson) to work with them to promote vaccine conspiracy theories.
An internal video shows Musk telling X employee: “What we want to create is not free speech, but free authority.”
This completely shattered Musk’s lie to build a “neutral platform”.
Another report by the Wall Street Journal, SpaceX Sold Starlink Access to Sanctioned Regimes, revealed that SpaceX, a subsidiary of Musk, secretly sold a large number of Starlink satellite terminal equipment to Iran, Saudi Arabia, Myanmar military government and Venezuela through third-party agents.
These devices are used to monitor opposition and track persons of operation; they are used by the military to coordinate border communications and battlefields; and they all bypass the US export control system and settle through shell companies based in the UAE.
Although SpaceX officially denied the knowledge, an email obtained by the Wall Street Journal showed that Musk himself had approved at least once a “special approval channel” for the Myanmar military regime.After the incident was exposed, the US Treasury Department has officially launched an investigation.
This is not only a technology outflow, but also a betrayal of democratic values. It can be seen that Musk will choose the former without hesitation between “profit” and “justice”.
“Musk’s Numbers Game: The Hidden Risks Behind Tesla’s Financial Reports” is one of the most technically detailed reports from the Wall Street Journal.
The reporter obtained inventory records and sales system data from many warehouses in Tesla and found that as many as 27% of the delivery vehicles were not actually delivered to users, but were “entered first” and then returned and exchanged; Tesla has repeatedly used this “hidden unsold inventory” to maintain stock prices and price-to-earnings ratio.
Musk himself also concentrated on selling Tesla stock worth hundreds of millions of dollars in the first 10 minutes before learning about the US government’s news about “auto tariffs”.This set of investigations directly led to the intervention of the US Securities and Exchange Commission and triggered several class action lawsuits.The report pointed out: “This is not a technical issue in financial reporting, but a systematic and systematic corruption.”
During Trump’s second term, Musk was appointed as the head of the “Ministry of Government Efficiency”.Although the institution is nominally “cutting government waste”, the Wall Street Journal investigation found that it is actually an important means for Musk to trade cryptocurrency.
“Elon Musk, the White House, and the Dogecoin Scheme” pointed out that Musk repeatedly proposed to “get the federal payment system to accept Musk’s Dogecoin”; he held at least 38 anonymous wallets related to Dogecoin through his subsidiary to build positions before the release of major policies of the Ministry of Efficiency.
It is not accidental that Musk’s virtual currency Dogecoin is exactly the same as the government’s Ministry of Efficiency, which is abbreviated by DOGE, which is often hyped online in puns.
Musk used the X platform to promote the narrative of “Dogcoin is the future payment of the United States” and conducted self-hype. Musk made a profit of more than $12 billion due to Dogecoin-related transactions.
This series of reports from the Wall Street Journal won the Pulitzer Prize and was based on three factors.
First of all, the evidence collection methods are meticulous and the law is accurately grasped: the newspaper’s reporter team obtains materials through anonymous interviews, internal emails, financial data, court documents, etc., strictly distinguishes the level of the message source, and conducts more than three rounds of cross-verification for each message.
Secondly, these reports are not celebrity gossip, but focus on major social issues such as “institutional risks”, “national security”, “financial transparency” and “technology ethics”, and have far-reaching public policy value.
Third, in an era when the US news ecosystem is increasingly compromised with traffic, the Wall Street Journal can still challenge one of the most powerful people in Silicon Valley with large-scale investigations, which is a return to the value of the traditional news industry itself.
After the release of this investigation series, the U.S. Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Treasury jointly established a special investigation team against Musk; a number of lawsuits entered the jury stage, including allegations of financial fraud, insider trading, export violations, etc.
Tesla’s sales fell by 14% year-on-year, with senior executives frequently resigning; SpaceX’s multiple military orders were questioned by Congress; X platform advertisers were greatly lost.
It is obvious that all Musk’s companies are operating around his personal likes and dislikes, and lack an effective governance mechanism and accountability system.Whether in politics, business or media, Musk has been deified as a “savior” in the past decade, and even turned a blind eye to his behavior.Until the Wall Street Journal investigation broke this situation.
In an era where social media owners can determine the flow of information, in a government efficiency supervisor can manipulate the value of virtual currencies, in an era where “private entrepreneurs” can interfere with global military transactions, we must rethink: Who will oversee these supercapitals?
The Wall Street Journal’s award this time marks a victory for traditional media and also reminds the world that everyone, including business geniuses, must survive under the supervision of the rule of law and public opinion.
