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1/ As a lifelong @WSJ reader who still enjoys so many great things about it, it breaks my heart to write this. But when it comes to $TSLA news reporting, the Journal's San Francisco bureau is MIA while @russ1mitchell of @latimes is just killing it. Link at the end of this thread.
2/ Mitchell is up this evening with another important story. This one about $TSLA's private press conference last Thursday. A blatant violation of the so-called Rule FD (Fair Disclosure). As Mitchell recounts, during the call Musk instructed, No recording and no reporting. 
3/ But there followed an uproar, not only from $TSLA shorts & skeptics (Russ is not shy about saying who raised the fuss) but from $TSLA hyper-fans as well, including @Gfilche.
4/ During the private press conference, information obviously material to $TSLA shareholders was released by Musk. Mitchell identifies it. But that was by no means the worst of it. No, this was:
5/ Got that? Musk, already facing a contempt motion from the SEC for his blatant violation of September's consent judgment, gave @SEC_Enforcement the middle finger, releasing material non-public information to one of the most sycophantic $TSLA analysts in the Galaxy.
6/ Oh, yes, and just so you know, Deutsche Bank is the Administrative Agent and Collateral Agent under $TSLA's crucial Asset-Based Loan (ABL) Agreement. Eight other banks rely on $DB to police the covenants in that agreement.
7/ Who else has called Musk out for this enormous violation of securities laws? Only @antonwahlman at @SeekingAlpha. That's a long way from mainstream media. So, God bless you, Russ Mitchell. And, @timkhiggins of @WSJ's San Francisco office, what gives? Inexcusable negligence.
8/ Mitchell goes further. He interviews a legal expert in Reg FD. He discusses the pending contempt motion. He offers context for that contempt motion. Now, @WSJ, please, pay close attention. This is how it's done:
9/ No equivocating. NO SUCH DEAL HAD BEEN STRUCK. Do you know why Russ Mitchell is so fearless in so stating? Because @elonmusk agreed, when he put pen to paper of his Consent Judgment, that he could never deny that. Never. Because it's true. Musk lied.
10/ Then Mitchell offers some context for the pending contempt motion. Pay attention again, Timmy Higgins. Because there is something just terribly wrong with your indolence, and your deference to Musk:
11/ Got that? NOT TRUE. Musk has admitted as much by retracting the claim and offering weak excuses. And the "Bellaire billionaire." Exactly. Why can't any other reporter in the United States of America lay out the facts about this grifter with the clarity Russ Mitchell manages?
12/ Mitchell is not done. Guess what? $TSLA very largest institutional shareholder is @BaillieGifford, and the genius behind its Tesla investment is the truly strange James Anderson. Here's something shocking:
13/ Whoa! $TSLA's largest institutional shareholder, whose holdings are managed by the biggest bagholder in the biz, is ready to see the human train wreck named Musk get out of the way. Have you read that in any other major journal? I think @latimes is first to the crash scene.
14/ There is a human cost to this. Mitchell notes that $TSLA has the sword of Damocles poised over its Fremont and Lathrop facilities and over numerous retail stories, and takes the time to talk to one of the nervous employees:
15/ This, my friends, is a beautiful penultimate paragraph:
16/ Good journalism isn't free. An on-line subscription to @latimes is ridiculously inexpensive. The quality of the reporting at that paper is vastly better than just a few years ago. And @russ1mitchell is setting the standard for $TSLA news reporting. Keep him writing.
17/ Here's the link. Read it all. And plump for a subscription. You won't regret it. The paper will appear in your inbox early each morning, in an easily navigable format. latimes.com/business/autos…
18/ Don't let me fail to mention that @Paul_M_Huettner forced Musk & $TSLA's hands by obtaining a recording of the private press conference, painstakingly transcribing it, and publishing it, first at twitter via dropbox and then on @SeekingAlpha. Doing God's work, Paul.
Dang. That's NOT the paragraph. THIS is:
19/ Always disconcerting to discovery you've made a mistake, but I printed the wrong penultimate paragraph earlier. Here is the correct one. Again, great job, @russ1mitchell:
