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>I wonder why WSJ and some conservatives set a target on Elon.

Because he has made some very powerful enemies. SpaceX encroached on ULA's turf in the military satellite launch business with a vastly more cost-effective solution. SolarCity is making energy utilities across the country nervous because it threatens their monopoly (just read about the so far successful push from Buffett's NV Energy to stop the advance of distributed solar in the state of Nevada). Tesla just sent Detroit into catatonia with the Model 3 launch and their (almost sure to be a) half-million reservations for a car that will exist only in two or more years.

None of these forces will go silently into the night. This feels like a deliberate, coordinated attack that hits Musk personally, and all three of his companies at once.

WSJ is owned by Rupert Murdoch, who has done very little positive in his career other than sell trashy newspapers, diminished those media who once were decent, manipulate political power (Tony Blair, Thatcher etc) for his own commercial interests - including pushing UK away from the EU. His newspapers were shut down as they were involved in phone hacking dead children, amongst other things.

Elon Musk wants to tackle climate change, build safe open artificial intelligence and go to Mars...

Is that true? The topic page linked in the article http://topics.wsj.com/person/E/Elon-Musk/1173 presents a variety of articles. Using SpaceX money to buy SCTY's unrated bonds is a fairly questionable maneuver - were investors from SpaceX's last round aware the money would be used this way, and if so, why didn't they just purchase SCTY bonds directly?

WSJ was also super-negative on Theranos, just to throw it out there, as tech press was being busy singing accolades to yet another unicorn.

>I wonder why WSJ and some conservatives set a target on Elon.

Conservation as a general concept is about preservation, tradition, limiting change. I'm sure there's plenty of people who align with conservative values for other reasons (as I'm sure most don't have a problem with Elon), but that doesn't change the fact that a lot of people are opposed to change in general. They like the way things have been and the way things are. They have a good thing going. They don't want to risk a future they might not like. They don't want to have to learn a new future. They don't want to have to worry or think about learning a new future.

Hell, I get it and I consciously chose to go in to web dev! I can find out about a new tool that will make my life easier and still have an initial reaction of "damn it, not another one!".

Elon Musk is the symbol for a lot of change.

That's a horrible generalization of conservatives.

Ha ! When did I generalize conservatives ? I said a couple of my conservative friends have this line of thought aligned with the comments. I was also just commenting on WSJ's motivation and not conservatives in general. Obviously not all conservatives are anti-Musk. I am not even sure that majority are. But there is no denying that there is a strain of conservatives who have strong anti-Musk sentiments.

>Ha ! When did I generalize conservatives

>I wonder why WSJ and conservatives set a target on Elon.

This is what I see: > I wonder why WSJ and some conservatives set a target on Elon

"More broadly, I wonder why WSJ and conservatives set a target on Elon."

and some

Apologize, didn't mean to come across that way. Edited comment slightly to reflect that

Let's replace CONSERVATIVES by WHITES in your statement. You tell me if you generalized.
"WSJ has a target on Elon Musk's back. Every week they post something negative about him or his companies. I have a couple of WHITE friends who have an irrational hatred for Elon. They rail how everything Elon Musk does is a "scam". The WSJ comments are a reflection of that mindset. More broadly, I wonder why WSJ and some WHITES set a target on Elon. There are literally a gazillion subsidies, tax credits, offshore accounting going around. For example, Hollywood shoots their movies wherever they get tax credits. Texas has attracted large back office operations using tax credits. Data center locations are chosen based upon which state government throws in the most benefits. It seems odd that they would spent so much energy on Musk, whose subsidies are probably a rounding error. It makes me wonder if there are bigger things at stake. Are the WSJ overlords really scared that he is making material changes to energy and transportation that could hurt them ?"

Is conservative a race now? Or white a political position?

No, they are just two HUGE groups of people that cannot possibly be, in mass, against Elon Musk.

I've noticed that too with some friends. Tesla has been a really popular short position for traders over the past year and (you guessed it) they're all taking a bath right now. It'd be interesting to see what role WSJ coverage has in that.

It's not just the WSJ: http://ftalphaville.ft.com/2015/08/13/2137334/this-is-tesla-...

It is actually really useful to understand that Elon Musk is $TSLA's one man plunge projection team.
Or that if Tesla issues more shares for capital, Elon Musk is the primary buyer.
Or that if there really WAS a costly issue that made the shares plummet, they will plummet further when he gets a margin call.

LATimes, is also a bit skeptical of Elon Musk.

LA Times is pretty conservative too. I have friends and family in LA who are, fairly liberal, and they pay for the New York Times rather than get local bias.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newspaper_endorsements_in_the_...

Here' the correct link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newspaper_endorsements_in_the_...