Elon Musk, Semafor allegations dig ‘conflict of interest’ rabbit hole Elon Musk, Semafor allegations dig ‘conflict of interest’ rabbit hole
In the public debate between Musk and Semafor, an allegation cross-fire emerged as media SBF investments revealed.
1 min read
Updated: Sep. 13, 2023 at 2:20 am UTC
Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate. Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.
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/bEoctknpeGAnd 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.”
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Author 
Josh O'Sullivan
Josh has been writing for a decade and is passionate about mainstream crypto adoption, bringing positive financial change to the masses through crypto and decentralized finance as a whole.
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In this article
South African-born Elon Musk has founded several companies, including X.com (which later became PayPal), SpaceX and Tesla Motors.
Sam Bankman-Fried is the former CEO, and co-founder of defunct crypto exchange FTX and Alameda Research.
