Media continues to handle FTX scammers with kid gloves

AP Photo/Marta Lavandier, File

The MSM is treating the scammers behind the FTX implosion with kid gloves, and it perplexes me a bit.

I was struck by this once again when I noticed the headline The Washington Post used when publishing a story of Caroline Ellison, the odd CEO of Alameda Research, the hedge fund that Sam Bankman-Fried and she used to steal billions from FTX clients and investors.

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The story purports to be something of a profile of Ellison, although it is short on…pretty much everything, actually. It is revealing in almost no regard, giving the bare details of her life, the fact of her guilty plea and cooperation with the authorities, and a bare-bones account of the scandal itself. If you had been following the scandal at all you would have learned nothing new and gained no new insights.

So why the story? Hard to say, but I have to imagine that the headline had something to do with it:

Given that Ellison is one of the biggest scammers in history that is quite an odd take. Caroline Ellison “wanted to make a difference?” Whatever makes you think that?

Well, she did loudly advertise that “fact” when she was busily scamming people. But that is the only evidence for the claim.

Do we generally take the words of con artists regarding their motives? Ellison and SBF stole around $8 billion, spent it on expensive real estate, buying political favors, and paying off the media, and the takeaway is that she wanted to make a difference?

That has been a major spin on the story, based upon the ridiculous assertions that the FTX crowd kept on mouthing off about “effective altruism,” and the MSM bought the story hook, line, and sinker. FTX became so large and wealthy because they manipulated the MSM with their PR magic into spreading the myth that they were getting rich solely to do good for the world. They were “effective altruists!”

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They made promises that they would prevent pandemics, elect only “good guys” (Democrats), and invest their billions in solving the world’s problems.

Instead they sunk other people’s money in a Ponzi scheme, spent zillions of dollars of other people’s money, bought influence, and got filthy rich. SBF is currently on on a $250 million bond.

Why is the media still selling their BS? It wouldn’t be THAT hard to turn on the pair, even given how deeply embedded the media was in promoting their phony products. All they have to do is pretend that they weren’t acting like PR flacks for the pair. Instead, they act like PR flacks for SBF and Ellison.

One has to imagine that there is something else going on, although it is hard to imagine what it could be other than deeper ties to politicians than we current are aware of. Things look awful enough.

One clue is that the duo didn’t just make the campaign contributions of which we are aware–SBF was the 2nd largest donor to the Democrats–but also illegal campaign contributions about which we know little.

SBF was charged with making illegal campaign contributions, but so far we know little about them. Unlike the contributions already known, these were made through straw donors–SBF funneled money through 3rd parties to campaigns, committees, and God knows who else. The details are currently hidden. Maybe people want them to stay hidden?

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Is this why the conspirators are being treated with kid gloves? Is there dirt that the MSM doesn’t want uncovered because it makes the Democrats look bad?

We can only speculate. So speculate away…

 

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Ed Morrissey 10:00 PM | November 20, 2024
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