The Wall Street Journal has officially issued two statements this past that stand in defense of one reporter who issued a report alleging that Elon Musk took part in an affair with the wife of Sergey Brin, the co-founder of Google.
One investigations editor for the outlet, Michael Siconolfi, issued a report at the start of the week that Musk “engaged in a brief affair last fall with the wife of Sergey Brin,” Nicole Shanahan, back at the start of December of 2021 at the Art Basel event held in Miami. The report issued the claim that the alleged affair is what caused Brin to eventually divorce Shanahan and dissolved the long-term friendship between the two tech moguls.
The report also made the claim that Musk “dropped to one knee in front of Brin and apologized profusely for the transgression” while attending a party earlier this past year and was “begging for forgiveness.” The report continued on to state that Brin acknowledged the apology, but that he is still not speaking with the Tesla CEO, and he has given the order for all his teams to sell off his personal investments in any company Musk owns.
One lawyer for Shanahan stated that the allegations that the two carried out an affair were outright false.
Musk issued a response that stated that Shanahan would be suing The Wall Street Journal due to her not being a public figure, and therefore would have a much easier time achieving a win in the court system.
“As a ‘public person,’ standard to win a defamation lawsuit against a news org is almost impossible,” stated Musk via social media. “They could say I’m Satan and the ‘source’ is their psychic! Nicole is not a public person, so could win. I hope she sues them. @michaelsiconolf has done so many fake hit pieces.”
The Wall Street Journal issued two statements about Siconolfi’s statements. One day after the report was officially published, the outlet stated, “We are confident in our sourcing, and we stand by our reporting.”
“Recent attacks on Michael Siconolfi are unwarranted and unfounded,” the paper went on to add later in the wake of Musk calling out the reporter by name on social media. “Mike is a celebrated and widely respected editor and reporter in our industry. He has overseen a wide array of impactful stories with integrity and high standards for The Wall Street Journal over many decades. For the record, Mike was not part of the editing team for this story.”