Kara Swisher Shreds Elon Musk’s ‘Petty Grievance Freak Show’: ‘My Greatest Disappointment in 25 years of Covering Tech’
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Tech journalist and podcaster Kara Swisher blasted Twitter owner Elon Musk accusing her of no longer caring about the truth.
On Wednesday, Swisher tweeted an article from Semafor about Musk seeking a $100 million investment in stock from former disgraced FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried into Twitter, which Musk acquired last month for $44 billion.
According to Semafor, which Bankman-Fried has invested in:
Two weeks after clinching a deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion, he texted Bankman-Fried just after midnight [on May 5] and invited him to roll the $100 million stake he had owned for a few months into a privately held Twitter.
The previously unreported message, which was reviewed by Semafor, set in motion a chain of events that has bound the two men, whose companies are both in varying degrees of crisis. Bankman-Fried owns a sizable chunk of a now privately held and debt-laden Twitter. And Musk, who has publicly distanced himself from the crypto impresario since FTX failed earlier this month, now counts him as a financial partner in his effort to remake Twitter.
Musk’s banker, Michael Grimes, later added that Bankman-Fried was in for $5 billion and possibly up to $10 billion. Bankman-Fried and Musk later spoke on the phone, Axios reported and Semafor has confirmed, and after that conversation, which was a few days before the text message exchange in question, Bankman-Fried opted not to invest.
Sharing the article, Swisher tweeted, “Of course Elon took the $ and then dunked on SBF, because it is all a game that you all aren’t supposed to see: Sam Bankman-Fried, Elon, and a secret text.”
“There was a time when you cared about the truth. That is long gone,” replied Musk.
Swisher fired back in a thread.
“There was a time when you cared about the truth @elonmusk. That is long gone. I’ll add: Playing to the cheap (and dirty) seats is no way to live. You may be my greatest disappointment in 25 years of covering tech. Well, you and having to interview Jeff Bezos on a Segway once,” she tweeted.
“In all seriousness, this is not the you I have known. While there have been lots of mistakes (me too), you had vision and drive and creativity and humor. Now it’s all thin-skinned ego and punching down and really bad dick jokes, just like all the other boys. Long, prolonged sigh,” she added.
Swisher invited Musk to talk with her.
“Btw rather than send your stans & flying monkeys after me on the Twitter with a reductive tweet, happy to talk anytime anywhere, as always, to debate, discuss, even dunk (as long as dick jokes are funny as those below) as long as you want. I think you can handle it; I know I can,” she tweeted.
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