"It could be worse"
The second biggest story in tech this week is SBF. It's second only to the breathless "did you hear what Musk did now?" updates from a digerati who fear the unleashing of free speech in their favorite playground.
(In brief, Sam Bankman-Fried, 30, known as SBF and head of FTX, a firm wanting to make itself the largest crypto-exchange in the world, borrowed between $1 and $10 billion from customers, plunging FTX into bankruptcy after the illegal act was unveiled, sending the value of FTX and 120 associated firms from $32 billion to $0 billion. It is now, as they say, a mess, that, being crypto, will be complicated to unravel.)
Much ink was spilled immediately upon learning of the SBF shenanigans, at least whatever ink was left from being spilled on Elon. (This morning, as I write this, the top four stories at Techmeme are about Elon Musk, with the SBF story coming in at 5th place. The priority for the tech media is the social status of their global preening stop, not those who lost $1, $10, or $32 billion due to illegal actions.)
This is considered the largest fast failure of a firm since the collapse of Enron. (Electricity reseller Enron said its secret to making massive profits was too complex for anyone outside the firm to understand. But all it did was move funds between divisions, recording each move as credit, and never as a debit.)
In the midst of the sturm und drang waltzes the New York Times with a puff piece on SBF. Here is the tweet with which it promoted the article:
"Puff piece" is a technical term used in publishing to describe soft, fluffy stories -- like a puff pastry. I tweeted, "I thought it was the job of Forbes and Fortune magazines to run puff pieces on biz but I see @NYTimes wants in." For a brief moment, the tech media stood as one with their much-despised Elon: "Elon Musk And Crypto Leaders Criticize NYT For Puff Piece On FTX Founder," wrote Bitoinist.
- - -
Here's a sampling of what the digerati had to say on *koff* Twitter *koff*:
@hsakatrades: And so it begins.
Bloomberg: Painting this is as some kind of “hyper masculine” bloodsport; mentioning Sam's “quirks”
NYT: Just a straight up puff piece, “I'm getting sleep. I'm playing Storybook Brawl.”
Appalling.
Alex Krüger (@krugermacro): Disgraceful reporting by the @nytimes on FTX. It portrays SBF as a charitable entrepreneur who went under, and does not mention the words fraud, criminal, substance abuse, friends & family Bahamas KYC racket, hack, stolen funds or wiped servers anywhere.
Jason Choi (@mrjasonchoi): SBF gets longtime collaborator @yaffebellany to write a puff piece for him to salvage his public image, as he deletes incriminating tweets. Nice journalism @nytimes.
Dominic Cummings (@dominic2306): New York Times coverage of SBF/FTX a great example of how mainstream old media like NYT is the most dangerous source of misinformation. Total dishonesty normal from the newspaper that covered up Stalin's forced famine on Ukraine in 1930s.
@coffeebreak_yt: WHEN YOU GET AN EXCLUSIVE WITH THE MOST WANTED MAN IN THE WORLD BUT YOU ASK HIM ABOUT HIS SLEEP.
Trung Phan (@trungtphan): Word count NYT's puff piece on SBF:
“Fraud”: 0
“Enron”: 0
“Crime”: 0
“Illiquid”: 0
“Stolen”: 0
“Hidden”: 0
“Criminal”: 0
“Back door”: 0
“He's getting sleep”: 1
In NYT article, [FTX-linked] Alameda CEO admits to misappropriating FTX customer deposits. Per FTX Terms of Service, the deposits are not FTX's to use, and FTX can't loan it. NYT writes it up FTX “used” and “lent” deposits. Think the appropriate words are “wire fraud”, “stole”, “theft.”
@zerohedge: Massive 2200-word article on SBF in the NYT. Mentions of donations to democrats = 0. [SBF and his firms were the second largest donors to the 2022 midterm elections, with all funds handed to the Democratic party.]
@lukemulks: NYT writes a puff piece on SBF & FTX/Alameda. The more this situation plays out over mainstream channels, the more it reads as soft cover for massive political donations. What's missing? Numbers. Investigation. Facts. Charts.
@0xsisyphus: SBF mentions a video game in the NYT piece, called “Storybook Brawl” It turns out FTX actually owns this game, he used the article as a promoted ad basically.
Jesse Powell (@jespow): The MSM [mainstream media] needs to take accountability for its role in contributing to the legitimization and high status of this insolvent ponzi. Without the media's backing and the endless puff pieces, victims would not have been so trusting with their savings. Even now, they downplay the story.
Elon Musk (@elonmusk): Why the puff piece @nytimes?
- - -
To close, here is the tweet from the NYT's author introducing his article:
David Yaffe-Bellany (@yaffebellany): I spoke to SBF for over an hour. I asked about investigations, potential jail time and missing customer funds. He didn't have satisfying answers, but it was a rare chance to see what he's thinking at an insane time. Here's a free link to read it in full: https://www.nytimes.com.
- - -
And here's the link to reading all of the reaction recorded by Techmeme to the NYT puff piece: techmeme.com/221115/p9#a221115p9
Comments