Tech companies giving media the silent treatment

In a Veterans Day opinion column, I criticized the Defense Department’s slide toward opaqueness over the past few years.

When the piece appeared, a general I had worked for in Air Force public relations said he wanted to remind me of the DOD’s Principles of Information and the doctrine of “maximum disclosure, minimum delay.”

His comment showed he believed the institution is doing all it can do to be transparent.

Unfortunately, the doctrine of “max disclosure, min delay” has eroded as the bureaucratic momentum toward silence accelerated and slow rolling became easier for government agencies under President Donald Trump.

Trump’s disdain for journalists percolated across the country, even reaching some of my friends and family, who’d say things like “the media is the enemy.”

Then came the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, where rioters assaulted photojournalists, scrawled “murder the media” on the walls, wore T-shirts with the same message and destroyed a pile of journalists’ gear.

While that’s one extreme, another is developing in the business world, especially among tech companies — the silent treatment.

Increasingly, some firms are shrinking away from talking to reporters; most notably among those companies is Elon Musk’s Tesla and SpaceX.

Tesla disbanded its public relations department in October. But even when the office was open, the electric vehicle maker was rarely forthcoming with the news media.

Nevertheless, the Public Relations Society of America called Tesla’s move “alarming” and noted it “sets an extraordinarily dangerous precedent for blocking the continued free flow of information from one of the world’s most innovative and influential companies.”

It added, “Disengagement is not a path to success.”

Some critics have noted that not maintaining relationships with the media can be dangerous, especially during crises.

But despite moving away from answering journalists’ questions, Musk’s cult of personality, combined with success after success, has given Tesla and SpaceX a massive following of rabid fans who’re quick to attack naysayers on social media.

Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and Tesla, is known for his candid tweets. That’s one cryptic source of information now that Tesla has dissolved its public relations department.