Good day everyone,
I hope you are all having a good day, welcome to CryptoGod-1's blog on all things crypto. In this post I will be looking at the recent news of Bullish firing three top CoinDesk editors, and how it all comes down to a billionaire thinking he was cool by purchasing and eating a banana worth $6.2 million.
You can find a previous article I wrote on this piece here: CoinDesk Editor Resigns Over Justin Sun Report
Bullish Fires CoinDesk Editors
CoinDesk is considered a reputable and reliable cryptocurrency publication but has been thrown in turmoil in recent times. Three top editors, including editor in chief Kevin Reynolds, have been dismissed following controversy over editorial independence. This all came about after an article about Justin Sun's extravagant purchase of an artwork banana for $6.3 million before going on to eat it. The article was removed following complaints by Sun's team and it seems the drama of an editor resigning (see my previous article) was not enough.
Bullish are the parent company of CoinDesk and have decided to abruptly dismiss three senior editors as concerns and controversy growing over editorial independence. The layoffs will also impact Deputy Editors-in-Chief Nick Baker and Marc Hochstein. All of this because a billionaire decided to purchase an art piece of a real banana duct-taped to a wall. Justin Sun, a Chinese-born cryptocurrency entrepreneur and business executive is the founder of TRON and decided to eat the banana, which was part of the “Comedian” series by artist Maurizio Cattelan, after purchasing it at auction at Sothebys'
An article was produced by CoinDesk detailing the extravagant nature of what Sun had done and as part of the article it referenced Sun's ongoing legal troubles with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Of course this was not a good image for Justin Sun so his team made complaints and apparently put pressure on Bullish to remove the article.
Tensions grew at CoinDesk over editorial independence, and it developed into a major concern for staff. Bullish are the owners of CoinDesk but when they took control of the company it was under the assurance that there would be no interreference with CoinDesk’s journalistic integrity. Now it seems that is not the case. Apparently following Sun’s representatives’ request for the article’s removal, Bullish CEO Tom Farley “ordered” its takedown in early December.
Bullish CEO Tom Farley
The decision to remove the article bypassed standard retraction protocols and this in turn caused turmoil internally. Matt Murray, former Editor-in-Chief of The Wall Street Journal, was the first to go as he handed in his resignation (see my previous article). He had been appointed to oversee CoinDesk’s editorial independence post-acquisition and personally I feel he did the right thing in walking away following the actions of Sun and Bullish.
The situation has gotten worse since, with staff feeling uneasy about potential conflicts between what they termed as “business interests and editorial freedom.” Many journalists within CoinDesk felt the removal of the article was a violation of the publication’s journalistic integrity. Now with three editors gone, one senior member of staff referred to them as the 'heart of the newsroom.' Staff also noted how Bullish executives have a heavy influence on editorial and content decisions.
Sources suggest that Friday’s dismissals were framed as part of a restructuring effort by Bullish to reduce costs and boost productivity, as stated in an internal email from CoinDesk CEO Sara Stratoberdha. However, many believe it is clearly a direct result of the Justin Sun article being removed. So this is the world we live in. A billionaire goes and buys a banana for over $6 million, eats it to desperately get some attention, and throws a hissy fit when people write about his actions. Once Sun can try keep his dirty actions out of the media and try be portrayed as a jovial character that is the main thing, right? So much for journalistic integrity, although it is clear this is the doing of Bullish and not CoinDesk.
Have a great day.
Peace. CryptoGod-1.
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