Comcast and Universal Must Release the Musk Documentary

Alex Gibney's four-hour documentary on Elon Musk premiered to five-minute standing ovations at Venice and earned strong reviews. Comcast-owned Universal Pictures paid millions for international distribution rights. Now, sources say Universal is getting "cold feet" — hasn't dated the film, hasn't communicated with Gibney's team, and may return the rights entirely. The reason, per The Hollywood Reporter: the film is "politically sensitive for parts of the Trump administration."

This is censorship by cowardice. Musk has already threatened Gibney with legal action — the act of a man who calls himself a "free speech absolutist" while trying to suppress a documentary about his own record. And this isn't isolated: Amazon MGM also dropped a film this year to avoid angering a tech oligarch. Meanwhile, Bleecker Street is still releasing the film in U.S. theaters this October. The question is whether international audiences will get to see it at all.

We call on Comcast and Universal to release Alex Gibney's Musk internationally — and on the press to cover this attempted suppression as the press freedom and media consolidation story it is. A world where studios shelve journalism-grade documentaries to protect billionaires with political connections is a world where oligarch money has replaced editorial judgment. The public deserves both the film and the truth about why it almost didn't reach them.