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We Shouldn’t Be Surprised at the Theranos Fraud

nautil.us

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Re: We Shouldn’t Be Surprised at the Theranos Fraud

#101

Post by wsc981 »

Rapzid wrote: post #71
kumarvvr wrote: post #26

The most amazing thing about this whole situation is that there were experts in the field who were shouting out about the impossibility of Holmes' claims right from the beginning. The media, though, never paid enough attention (or was possibly subverted by Theranos itself) to the naysayers. These incidents ought to remind us the exponentially important role media plays in our lives and how important it is that we com…

Reminds me of the doomed OnLive. Anyone who knew anything about the internet and latency was speaking out about the impossibility of it ever being a suitable experience from a latency perspective. Concerns were just treated as alternative facts at the time.

I played a bit on OnLive, just to test it out and I thought the experience was decent enough on my (at the time) MacBook Air. Perhaps not good enough for twitch multiplayer gaming (I didn't try that), but I thought it was ok for the single player games that I tried.

Re: We Shouldn’t Be Surprised at the Theranos Fraud

#102

Post by jl2718 »

kumarvvr wrote: post #26

The most amazing thing about this whole situation is that there were experts in the field who were shouting out about the impossibility of Holmes' claims right from the beginning. The media, though, never paid enough attention (or was possibly subverted by Theranos itself) to the naysayers. These incidents ought to remind us the exponentially important role media plays in our lives and how important it is that we com…

My question is: where is the due diligence from investors? Nobody even bothers anymore. I’ve begun to think they don’t even care, because they truly believe that money makes success, not people, and certainly not technology.

Re: We Shouldn’t Be Surprised at the Theranos Fraud

#103

Post by jadedhacker »

kumarvvr wrote: post #26

The most amazing thing about this whole situation is that there were experts in the field who were shouting out about the impossibility of Holmes' claims right from the beginning. The media, though, never paid enough attention (or was possibly subverted by Theranos itself) to the naysayers. These incidents ought to remind us the exponentially important role media plays in our lives and how important it is that we com…

You won't get honest and really critical press without removing capitalist (i.e. non-democratic) ownership of the press. Making it so that the journalists own the company rather than some billionaire overlord would be a marked improvement.

Re: We Shouldn’t Be Surprised at the Theranos Fraud

#104

Post by jaypaulynice »

kumarvvr wrote: post #26

The most amazing thing about this whole situation is that there were experts in the field who were shouting out about the impossibility of Holmes' claims right from the beginning. The media, though, never paid enough attention (or was possibly subverted by Theranos itself) to the naysayers. These incidents ought to remind us the exponentially important role media plays in our lives and how important it is that we com…

This happens pretty often actually. The same early investors own the media companies so they get to push stories to get companies huge valuations. The media is there to make money too! One thing America lacks is public radio/tv whose goal is to serve the public. People keep forgetting that the media is private. Whoever controls the media controls the people.

Re: We Shouldn’t Be Surprised at the Theranos Fraud

#105

Post by txsh »

lhorie wrote: post #80
kumarvvr wrote: post #26

The most amazing thing about this whole situation is that there were experts in the field who were shouting out about the impossibility of Holmes' claims right from the beginning. The media, though, never paid enough attention (or was possibly subverted by Theranos itself) to the naysayers. These incidents ought to remind us the exponentially important role media plays in our lives and how important it is that we com…

> come up with a framework to penalize misleading journalism, while at the same time, preserving the independence of media Why this obsession with penalizing people? Journalists might not know better. At some point one needs to take some responsibility in determining whether what they are consuming are actually reputable data sources or just cheap/free entertainment and hearsay, and one needs to realize that news out…

I don’t know how any honest, intelligent person can hold this position post-JournoList.

Re: We Shouldn’t Be Surprised at the Theranos Fraud

#106

Post by danieltillett »

starpilot wrote: post #98
kumarvvr wrote: post #26

The most amazing thing about this whole situation is that there were experts in the field who were shouting out about the impossibility of Holmes' claims right from the beginning. The media, though, never paid enough attention (or was possibly subverted by Theranos itself) to the naysayers. These incidents ought to remind us the exponentially important role media plays in our lives and how important it is that we com…

> The most amazing thing about this whole situation is that there were experts in the field who were shouting out about the impossibility of Holmes' claims right from the beginning. Links? Wasn't Holmes incredibly secretive about everything? It's not like she was promising overunity or anything, just a "radically new approach" type thing.

The reason why experts knew it was fraud right from the start is not even god can do the assays Holmes was claiming from a single drop of blood - the information is just not present and the variability is too high.

Re: We Shouldn’t Be Surprised at the Theranos Fraud

#107

Post by hkmurakami »

lhorie wrote: post #80
kumarvvr wrote: post #26

The most amazing thing about this whole situation is that there were experts in the field who were shouting out about the impossibility of Holmes' claims right from the beginning. The media, though, never paid enough attention (or was possibly subverted by Theranos itself) to the naysayers. These incidents ought to remind us the exponentially important role media plays in our lives and how important it is that we com…

> come up with a framework to penalize misleading journalism, while at the same time, preserving the independence of media Why this obsession with penalizing people? Journalists might not know better. At some point one needs to take some responsibility in determining whether what they are consuming are actually reputable data sources or just cheap/free entertainment and hearsay, and one needs to realize that news out…

If anyone it’s the journalists who should uphold themselves to that responsibility. If they don’t, then their purpose in this world is moot. We might as well have 100% social media reporting.

Re: We Shouldn’t Be Surprised at the Theranos Fraud

#108

Post by usrusr »

xevb3k wrote: post #85
tptacek wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt we disagree strongly. Also, all I know about this story I know from Carreyrou's book; you might know a lot more than me. Unsurprisingly given my source, I have the impression that Theranos might have survived the FDA stuff, had the WSJ debacle not occurred.

I think that’s possible. But if it wasn’t consumer testing, then I don’t think it would have been news, and the fallout wouldn’t have been as big. So, we possibly agree. The fact that they started doing consumer testing with a device that didn’t work made this news. However, similar kinds of lies/misinformation gets told to investors in biotech startups all the time. That they actually did consumer testing is what ma…

How does the start of consumer testing mesh with the investment timeline? Unless testing only started after the last investment was committed, the two are the opposite of unrelated.

Re: We Shouldn’t Be Surprised at the Theranos Fraud

#109

Post by laughinghan »

donbright wrote: post #99
kumarvvr wrote: post #26

The most amazing thing about this whole situation is that there were experts in the field who were shouting out about the impossibility of Holmes' claims right from the beginning. The media, though, never paid enough attention (or was possibly subverted by Theranos itself) to the naysayers. These incidents ought to remind us the exponentially important role media plays in our lives and how important it is that we com…

The Wall Street Journal is the only reason the company was outed. This same journal was also one of her early boosters. We already have a framework that preserves independence of the media, the First Amendment. All of the NDAs and Boies style intimidation and legal abuse and harrasment of the whistleblowers and journalists was only stopped by the First Amendment. We already have a framework that punishes journalists…

I am under the impression that it is rare for journalists in America to be murdered for their stories, is that not the case?

None of your examples are journalists being penalized for lack of due diligence or for being misleading. I think your instinct to protect journalists given their importance and the threats they face is a healthy and important one, and I share it, but I don’t think they’re above reproach. Ensuring the independence and safety of journalists is of paramount importance; ensuring journalists are appropriately incentivized to report accurate stories with healthy skepticism is of secondary importance after that (since most will innately desire that anyway), but it is still also important.

Re: We Shouldn’t Be Surprised at the Theranos Fraud

#110

Post by wetpaws »

kumarvvr wrote: post #26

The most amazing thing about this whole situation is that there were experts in the field who were shouting out about the impossibility of Holmes' claims right from the beginning. The media, though, never paid enough attention (or was possibly subverted by Theranos itself) to the naysayers. These incidents ought to remind us the exponentially important role media plays in our lives and how important it is that we com…

Everyone who would dare to criticize Holmes would go against modern empowerment narrative and claimed as misogynist, so I'm not surprised.
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