Tesla CEO, Elon Musk has bashed popular Cable News Network (CNN) for allegedly spreading fake news about his donation of 1,000 ventilators to the state of California.
The billionaire entrepreneur had in March said he had obtained the ventilators from China to help hospitals in the state in the treatment of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
The State Governor, Gavin Newsom praised the Tesla boss at a news conference on March 23 for the promised items, which the governor said were already in Los Angeles and waiting to be delivered to hospitals in need.
But the popular news channel on Wednesday quoted Newsom’s office as saying that Musk had yet to fulfil his promise more than three weeks after.
Quoting a Wednesday statement from the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, CNN wrote: “Elon Musk and his team told the state that he had procured ventilators and wanted to distribute them directly to hospitals with shortages.
“The Administration is communicating every day with hospitals across the state about their ventilator supply and to date we have not heard of any hospital system that has received a ventilator directly from Tesla or Musk.”
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While CNN said Musk and Tesla did not respond when approached for comments, the billionaire attacked the news channel on social media.
Reacting to the story on Twitter, he wrote: “What I find most surprising is that CNN still exists”.
He also shared a copy of an email in which a Los Angeles Department of Health Services staff, Philip Franks, admitted that the ventilators had been received and tested to be working fine.
Furthermore, Musk urged the governor to clear up the misunderstanding.
See screenshot of the email:
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