[SteveGregory]

The media might not be intentionally manipulating the stock so much as publishing information which short sellers find, package, and hand over for free. The incentive is there to create a misleading information campaign even without assuming the media is being very deliberate or coordinating.

Edit: I have no idea why I'm being so downvoted here. All I am saying is that short sellers have incentive to hand the media whatever they can to help their case (not so controversial, right?) and that the media might be taking it for free rather than, as the parent poster says, coordinating to specifically harm Tesla (is this the controversial bit?)

[firasd]

Right. Tesla short-sellers and media critics say all their doings are virtuous and normal actions in the context of stock markets, but I think the intensity of the feeding-frenzy makes it all a bit weird.

For example, let's say I think IBM has oversold 'Watson' AI. I would take a short position in IBM and start publishing my concerns. Fair enough. But if I start camping outside every hospital that uses Watson, badgering staff going in and out, it should at least raise eyebrows... Same with all the claims the Tesla short-sellers manage to spread by spending their lives flying planes over factories and camped out near parking lots trying to count vehicle production/sale figures, leading to mainstream media publishing vague allegations like this: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/01/business/tesla-cars-quest...