There’s a symbiosis. Elizabeth Holmes was a fantastic story for the time, a self-made billionaire changing the world through healthcare innovations, she was on

There’s a symbiosis. Elizabeth Holmes was a fantastic story for the time, a self-made billionaire changing the world through healthcare innovations, she was on the front cover of magazines because it was a story people absolutely wanted to hear. Likewise with SBF, he’s this multi-billionaire crypto guy who lives like he’s poor! He wants to do good! He’s deep into effective altruism! That’s interesting to a lot of people. The uncritical platforming of these stories is definitely worth criticism, but I don’t believe there to be a grand conspiracy required for SBF to get a bunch of fawning coverage. (Specifically picking on the New York Times: they frequently publish puff pieces about all sorts of things, they have a long running column about wealthy people’s weddings. Taking a story that people will find interesting (billionaire drives a Corolla) and telling it with a big leading photo is just what a lot of journalism is. If you read every article in the NYT, the SBF piece is totally believable as par for the course without any motive beyond “it’s a story people will like reading”).