I don't think you can quite compare Elon to Zuck. As far as we know, Elon isn't stripping away a captive audience's privacy with reckless abandon.

Google is just as bad as Facebook but they don't get this constant negative media coverage.

Google had “Do no evil”

Zuck had “I’m CEO b!tch”

One is much more likable than the other.

It is really this. Google was founded by two nice guys and somewhat went the way of large corporations. Facebook was founded by a jerk and just expanded its capacity to be a jerk.

Arrogance is less dangerous than hypocrisy IMO.

But hubris is worst of all.

Maybe, just maybe because both did things that are worth scrutinizing and reporting on? Which kind of is the job of journalists?

There is a huge appetite for content and editors are constantly chasing the latest fashion in an attempt to gain readership. If you're a journalist it's much easier to get a piece picked up by an editor and published if it's in tune with the zeitgeist because then an editor is more likely to think it will capture peoples' attention.

I've come to the conclusion that the news/attention cycle is partly an emergent phenomenon explained by stuff like this. This means you get pretty big swings from one thing to another as editors chase each other to jump on the latest bandwagon and journalists push stories to every outlet they can find.

Add to that all the PR agencies, fake think tanks, spinmasters etc who will write pieces for hire and generally tip the scales (for a price). So if you have a particular angle to promote, you hire one of these companies, they write stories, op ed pieces, publish "research" etc favourable to your angle and give them to friendly journalists who pretty much just put their name on the byline and submit the story.

Elon Musk is not a great person, and he has made terrible choices, there is nothing to defend about either of them.