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An Alleged Affair to Remember

A close reading of the media melee over what did and didn’t happen between Sergey Brin, Elon Musk, and Nicole Shanahan reveals the second order consequences, near and far term.

Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google. Photo: Brooks Kraft LLC/Getty Images
Dylan Byers
&
Theodore Schleifer
July 29, 2022

From the moment it was published last Sunday, The Wall Street Journal’s double-bylined “WSJ News Exclusive” bombshell report, inelegantly but comprehensively headlined “Elon Musk’s Friendship with Sergey Brin Ruptured by Alleged Affair,” set off a nuclear explosion in the adjacent industries of technology, finance, media, philanthropy, and the celebrity industrial complex. It also set off a series of cascading questions about the article of journalism, itself: What counts as an affair? What is an“alleged affair”? And then: How could the reporters possibly know? And last but not least: Why did the Journal, the classy establishment business bible, publish this very personal piece in the first place?