Benzinga - by Chris Katje, Benzinga Staff Writer.
Billionaire Elon Musk has won many awards and accolades over the years thanks to his entrepreneurial spirit and leadership of several of the most well-known companies in the world.
But now a previously announced award Musk was set to receive has been cancelled after backlash.
What Happened: Musk was set to be honored with a 2024 Ruth Bader Ginsburg Leadership Award, named after the trailblazing former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Musk was one of several recipients in this year's class of the RBG Awards. The list included media mogul Rupert Murdoch, billionaire Michael Milken, actor Sylvester Stallone and entrepreneur Martha Stewart.
After controversy over the recipients, the 2024 awards have been cancelled and Musk and the others will not be receiving their awards, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The Opperman Foundation, responsible for the award, updated the title for this year’s ceremony. The award, previously known as the Women of Leadership Award, was presented as the Leadership Award in 2024. Notably, four of the five 2024 recipients were men.
Ginsburg's family criticized the name change and the decision to award men with an honor named after the trailblazing former Supreme Court justice who was the second female to ever hold the position and set many firsts in her law career, paving the way for other women in the law field.
"The justice's family wish to make clear that they do not support using their mother's name to celebrate this year's slate of awardees and that the justice's family has no affiliation with and does not endorse these awards," Jane Ginsburg said.
RBG Award winner Barbra Streisand also criticized the awards in a post on Instagram saying she was joining the Ginsburg family in speaking out against the 2024 honorees list.
"I had the privilege of meeting Justice Ginsburg on several occasions, and I strongly doubt she would approve of these awardees," Streisand said.
The Opperman Foundation announced the cancellation Monday.
"The last thing we intended was to offend the family and friends of RBG," Opperman Foundation Chair Julie Opperman said in a statement.
Opperman said the foundation will "reconsider its mission" and discuss "how or whether to proceed in the future."
Related Link: Elon Musk Wins An Emmy (Well, Sort Of)
Why It's Important: Ginsburg and Streisand were not specific on which honoree or honorees led to their comments. It's possible it was more than one of the five candidates.
Musk has become a controversial figure for his takes on free speech and the ownership of social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
Murdoch is tied to media companies News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWS) and Fox Corporation (NASDAQ:FOX)(NASDAQ:FOXA) and was the founder of the Fox News, which is now known as a conservative media outlet.
Milken helped grow the high-yield bond market and previously was indicted for racketeering and securities fraud. He was sentenced to prison and barred from securities trading, and was later pardoned by President Donald Trump in 2020.
It’s also possible that the backlash was more in part to the award that was previously granted to women having its criteria changed to also honor men. Four out of the five winners being men in the first year of the change likely led to escalated attention.
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