Elon Musk hits out at Sydney Morning Herald for ‘boring audiences to death’

X owner Elon Musk has delivered a brutal takedown of an Australian newspaper, predicting they will lose their readership over “relentless lying”.

The hit targeted Nine Entertainment’s Sydney Morning Herald after it published an opinion piece on Sunday featuring a prediction that irked the billionaire.

The outlet published an article by technology editor David Swan in which he shared his predictions for the industry in 2025.

One prediction was that Mr Musk would leave electric car manufacturer Tesla to focus on Government work with US President-elect Donald Trump.

Mr Swan suggested that the world’s richest man would have too much on his plate.

“To be juggling leadership roles at X (formerly Twitter), Tesla, SpaceX, xAI, the Boring Company and Neuralink was already unsustainable,” the SMH article read.

“Musk now has wormed his way into Trump’s inner circle, and will jointly lead the president-elect’s DOGE – Department of Government Efficiency – in a bid to slash billions in government expenditure.

“After constant controversies and distractions, it will all come to a head in 2025, and Musk will be forced to hand over the reins at Tesla, a company many mistakenly think he founded.”

The prediction over Mr Musk’s resignation was not appreciated by the world’s richest man.

Replying to a screenshot of the opinion piece, Mr Musk delivered his own prediction for 2025, aimed directly at the publisher of the article.

“I predict that the Sydney Morning Herald will continue to lose readership in 2025 for relentlessly lying to their audience and boring them to death

Mr Musk’s smackdown was shared with his 209 million followers on the X social media platform.

“Easy prediction to make, any legacy media continuing to lie to their readers will face significant decline,” one user added to Mr Musk’s prediction.

“Australia, Ireland and the UK are stuck in the woke nightmare, and I feel for them,” said another.

“They are becoming more and more irrelevant,” a third added.

One user shared a screenshot of Nine Entertainment’s share price, which has been in decline since 2022.

Back on the Sydney Morning Herald website, Mr Swan appeared to strike a chord with some readers.

“I’d love to see Musk on a one-way trip to Mars and stop teaching me how to live my life,” one person commented.

“Musk quits Tesla and becomes de facto President of the USA!” wrote another.

Mr Musk agreed with one user commenting on his post who said that “legacy media is in a doom spiral”.

Mr Swan appeared to brush off the attack on his own X profile, writing, “Damn, roasted” in a post accompanied by a retweet of Mr Musk’s clap back.

However, the reaction to Mr Swan’s was split on his profile.

“You need to frame this,” one wrote.

“How about so-called journalists try and get their dignity back by not reporting lies and gearing the audience towards clickbait,” said another.

The controversy ended a week that the Sydney Morning Herald may want to put behind them.

On Friday, the newspaper issued an apology after incorrectly identifying Adelaide barrister Ian Roberts as the South Australian fatality in the Sydney to Hobart race.

Mr Roberts was not killed in the tragic accident, instead, South Australian Nick Smith lost his life when he was struck by a boom during dangerous weather.

“The Sydney Morning Herald incorrectly named Adelaide barrister Ian Roberts as one of the victims in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race,” the Sydney Morning Herald wrote.

“This was incorrect. We apologise to Mr Roberts and his family.”