New York Times' Broder Fires Back After Tesla Attack

Earlier today, AdAge.com published a post titled "Uh-Oh. The Tesla Motors vs. New York Times War Has Gone Nuclear." It detailed accusations made last night (in the form of blog post) by Elon Musk, the founder-CEO of the electric-car company, against Times reporter John M. Broder. Broder recently published a scathing account of his experience driving a Tesla Model S sedan, the gist of which was that the car's batteries just couldn't hold a sufficient charge in cold weather, turning an East Coast road trip designed to take advantage of strategically located Tesla charging stations into a pathetic comedy of errors. At one point, Broder wrote, he had to use a towing service because his Model S had prematurely ground to a halt. Musk's response was to charge that Broder deliberately sabotaged the Tesla-arranged test drive and that he'd "worked very hard to force our car to stop running." He cited detailed logs from the test vehicle's computer system to make his case. At 6:10 ET this evening, Broder posted a detailed response on the Times "Wheels" blog. What took so long? Turns out Broder has a lot to say in his defense. His post, titled "That Tesla Data: What It Says and What It Doesn't," runs 2,136 words. Stay tuned for, surely, more drama to come -- including return fire from Musk -- and hopefully a TV-movie dramatization of this epic CEO-vs.-reporter, blog-vs.-blog battle. Simon Dumenco is the "Media Guy" columnist for Advertising Age. You can follow him on Twitter @simondumenco.

New York Times' Broder Fires Back After Tesla Attack

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