Elon Musk rips the press for 'ridiculous' coverage of Tesla firings

Elon Musk is not happy with the press.

Musk was giving his opening remarks during Tesla's third quarter earnings call on Wednesday, and he had a very clear message to some of the journalists listening remotely on the line: He's pissed off at their work.

The Tesla CEO's voice was noticeably strained when he brought up media coverage of the automaker's October mass firings, which reportedly came after performance reviews.

Musk didn't hold back when he mentioned the media. "These are ridiculous," he said, referring to the way some unnamed outlets covered the story. "Any journalist [who wrote these articles] should be ashamed of themselves for lacking journalistic integrity."

He went on to claim that Tesla needs to have higher standards for its employees than traditional automakers or it will "die," and said that, contrary to much of the coverage, only 300 employees -- 2 percent of the company's workforce -- were eliminated due to performance standards.

The high-profile firings led to a lawsuit brought by a former employee, who claimed that Tesla didn't give proper warning under California state law. Musk didn't address the lawsuit during the call.

He did continue to dress down the press, however. He said that much of the coverage didn't put Tesla's position as an upstart automaker into proper context, and those reports came specifically from "journalists and editors with low integrity."

Musk's comments come at a harrowing time for the press, when President Donald Trump routinely dismisses negative coverage as "fake news." Elon Musk might have had a fair point about unfair coverage from certain outlets, but without naming names, he came uncomfortably close to the tone of Twitter's most notorious user, the president.

That was especially evident with Musk's one final word on the topic. "Shame," he said, and let the message linger on the line before changing the topic.