Ashley Rindsberg has an interesting Tablet piece on the crucial role of the media in Sam Bankman-Fried's crypto career.
Inventing the Crypto King
How the media created the myth of Sam Bankman-Fried
One of the most striking things about the collapse of crypto exchange FTX, once counted among the world’s largest, is the extent to which it caught the supposed watchdogs of the tech industry by surprise. How could Sam Bankman-Fried, the brainiac financial visionary, crowned earlier this year the “crypto emperor” by The New York Times, have steered his armada of crypto firms into the rocks so recklessly? With allegations of an enormous, brazen fraud lingering, the first place to look is at the central role of the media in this fiasco. Through an almost endless churn of fawning coverage, the news media turned an inexperienced—and, it seems, ethically deranged—trader into the second coming of Warren Buffett.
The whole piece is well worth reading as it raises a question with wider implications - would the debacle have been possible without that almost endless churn of fawning coverage?
One of the most important tactics he used to do this was the creation of top-tier brand partnerships that would drive headlines. FTX’s relationships with Mercedes’ F1 team, naming rights negotiated with the Miami Heat, stage-sharing with Bill Clinton and Tony Blair (a pair not usually known for their altruism), the launch of an FTX gaming unit, the Larry David Super Bowl Ad—each one represented another PR opportunity that would generate dozens of headlines. With so much news real estate devoted to breathlessly boosting the latest FTX deal, sponsorship, or main-stage appearance, there was hardly room left over for investigations—or even for a critical op-ed.
One of the most important tactics he used to do this was the creation of top-tier brand partnerships that would drive headlines. FTX’s relationships with Mercedes’ F1 team, naming rights negotiated with the Miami Heat, stage-sharing with Bill Clinton and Tony Blair (a pair not usually known for their altruism), the launch of an FTX gaming unit, the Larry David Super Bowl Ad—each one represented another PR opportunity that would generate dozens of headlines. With so much news real estate devoted to breathlessly boosting the latest FTX deal, sponsorship, or main-stage appearance, there was hardly room left over for investigations—or even for a critical op-ed.
Even Tony Blair gets a mention - what a surprise. That almost endless churn of fawning coverage didn't put Tony off.
3 comments:
Shamelessly pinching this post by 'Thoughtful' on Biased BBC yesterday, the link here is a full document: -
Click to access 042020648197.pdf
Elsewhere, she reckons: -
"It’s the statement to the court requesting the company is placed into bankruptcy, it’s unusual for a paragraph such as number 5 to be included in such a document.
The phrase “potentially compromised individuals” could be dynamite depending on upon what or how they were compromised"
As I'm still trying to get to grips with decimalisation from 1971, having taken years to master duodecimals, I'm afraid that all this goes 'WHOOOOSH' over my old grey head, but I thought you and other smarter citizens than me might be interested!
Scrobs - thanks for the link, I'll take a look. I hope Blair is one of the “potentially compromised individuals”.
So di I, AK!
...tumbleweed...
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