Elon Musk may not be a great neighbor. You can read all about it in a New York Times article detailing what it’s like to reside in West Lake Hills, Texas, near the world’s wealthiest man.
In a story describing issues with permits and ordinances at Musk’s property, the Times reveals various characteristics of the home, including its cost, size, and large and controversial fence. But the newspaper scrupulously avoids giving the address or even naming the street where Musk resides.
If you looked at the top of the article, though, you’d know exactly where Musk’s house is: The lead image included a superimposed rendering of an official document listing complaints about apparent zoning violations at Musk’s property — leading off with his home address.
Shortly after The Intercept sent a request for comment, the Times updated the lead image to remove the street address — replacing the text with a translucent background.
“An image accompanying this piece of journalism has since been updated by an editor,” Times spokesperson Charlie Stadtlander said in a statement. “The Times makes updates to our journalism when warranted.”
While the original unredacted image is no longer affixed to the article, however, it presently remains live on the New York Times website.
Musk, contacted at his DOGE email, did not respond to a request for comment.
The Intercept confirmed that the address initially listed in the Times’s image was the same as the house discussed in the article by cross-referencing context clues in the article with online maps, satellite images, and real estate listings.
The Times piece reveals various details about the Musk property, noting it is in an “upscale cul-de-sac in West Lake Hills, Texas” and is “one of four homes on the leafy street.” It is described as a $6 million property of 6,900 square feet, with six bedrooms.
“Musk purchased the West Lake Hills home through a limited liability company, which was named after the street where the property sits,” the Times reported.
The lead image for the story originally displayed an address which matched all of these characteristics.
The address listed on the article art is also the address referenced in a court document from February 2025 as being Musk’s last known address.
Musk has previously retaliated against those he perceived as sharing his private, personal information, referring to the information as “assassination coordinates.” He banned a Twitter account, for instance, that reported the real-time location of his private jet. Musk also banned numerous reporters who wrote about or linked to the Twitter account.
In March, The Intercept published Musk’s government email address, related to his work with the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. The decision to publish the address arose from a desire to facilitate journalists’ public records requests, which are frequently denied for a lack of specificity, including the failure to include specific email addresses.
The Times has previously revealed other sensitive information in its accompanying story art, for instance, inadvertently revealing a source’s passport number.
The news outlet has previously tip-toed around publishing the locations of known figures, albeit not reporting their exact addresses. In 2014, the paper published the street name, though not the precise street number, of the home of Darren Wilson, the police officer who shot and killed Michael Brown, setting off a round of nationwide Black Lives Matter protests in Ferguson, Missouri.
In 2020, Tucker Carlson claimed that the Times was doing a story on the location of Carlson’s house — naming the reporter and photographer he said the Times had assigned to the story. The Times responded that it did “not plan to publish Carlson’s residence.” Following Carlson’s allegations, however, the reporter he named was doxed, and the photographer called 911 to report people attempting to break into his home.
Update: May 6, 2025, 2:55 p.m. ET
This story has been updated to include a statement from the New York Times received after publication.
IT’S EVEN WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT.
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We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.
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