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Theranos / Holmes, also demonstrated how superficial, almost down to malpractice current so called journalism is. Complete lack of analysis, expertise in the f

Theranos / Holmes, also demonstrated how superficial, almost down to malpractice current so called journalism is. Complete lack of analysis, expertise in the fields they are covering, and clear initial non-biased position. Instead, we get this flood propaganda + sensationalism garbage from these so called 'reputable' news sources. And, as a consequence, con-artists, career politicians, and 'celebrities' -- leverage this legalized malpractice for their purposes. While we, the consumers of 'news' -- are being exploited and treated like as dehumanizing 'advertisement revenue points/votes. We are essentially being suffocated by this 'carbon dioxide of information'. So in my view, it is not just the case of E. Holmes misleading investors, board members and consumers -- it is also the case of journalism malpractice.

JumpCrisscross 8y ago
> Theranos / Holmes, also demonstrated how superficial, almost down to malpractice current so called journalism is Theranos was exposed by a Wall Street Journal reporter investigating and exposing the fraud. He was threatened multiple times and never budged. This is a story of journalistic excellence.
- paulddraper 8y ago
  Most of all, this is an inditement of several SV VCs. They should know nearly as much as anyone.
- zaidf 8y ago
  They were exposed after they raised almost a billion dollars from sales and investments, often on the basis of glowing media. The book is filled with anecdotes abt how the positive media was leveraged by Holmes and often cited by internal champions at Safeway and Walgreens to counter the skeptical voices in the room (“come on, they’re in Forbes, they can’t be a scam!”)
- eric-hu 8y ago
  I think that reporter did good work, but isn't this like pointing to a hackathon bug fix that saves a company as engineering excellence? The parent is seemingly saying that quality journalism would have better scrutiny to not allow the situation to get this far in the first place.
obelix_ 8y ago
I totally agree. The information environment we live in is extremely damaging. Back in 2006-7 I attended a conference where there was a big panel on what the future of news was going to look like. Lots of newspapers were shutting down. They made 3 predictions - news would be replaced with pandering to the lowest common denominator in the arms race for eyeballs, ads and marketing content looking like news(fake news) would exponentially increase, real journalists would be replaced by the talking head/oped class. They concluded that the only way out, was to hope that revenue generated from the transition from print to digital/mobile would prevent these three things happening. Its been a decade now and that transition is more or less complete and many have figured out how to stay afloat and yet all three predictions seem to have come true.

JumpCrisscross 8y ago

> Theranos / Holmes, also demonstrated how superficial, almost down to malpractice current so called journalism is Theranos was exposed by a Wall Street Journal reporter investigating and exposing the fraud. He was threatened multiple times and never budged. This is a story of journalistic excellence.

paulddraper 8y ago
Most of all, this is an inditement of several SV VCs. They should know nearly as much as anyone.
zaidf 8y ago
They were exposed after they raised almost a billion dollars from sales and investments, often on the basis of glowing media. The book is filled with anecdotes abt how the positive media was leveraged by Holmes and often cited by internal champions at Safeway and Walgreens to counter the skeptical voices in the room (“come on, they’re in Forbes, they can’t be a scam!”)
eric-hu 8y ago
I think that reporter did good work, but isn't this like pointing to a hackathon bug fix that saves a company as engineering excellence? The parent is seemingly saying that quality journalism would have better scrutiny to not allow the situation to get this far in the first place.

obelix_ 8y ago

I totally agree. The information environment we live in is extremely damaging. Back in 2006-7 I attended a conference where there was a big panel on what the future of news was going to look like. Lots of newspapers were shutting down. They made 3 predictions - news would be replaced with pandering to the lowest common denominator in the arms race for eyeballs, ads and marketing content looking like news(fake news) would exponentially increase, real journalists would be replaced by the talking head/oped class. They concluded that the only way out, was to hope that revenue generated from the transition from print to digital/mobile would prevent these three things happening. Its been a decade now and that transition is more or less complete and many have figured out how to stay afloat and yet all three predictions seem to have come true.