MEDIA WINNER: CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin CNBC anchor Andrew Ross Sorkin conducted a journalism masterclass on Wednesday, grilling disgraced FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried during The New York Times’ DealBook Summit. Sorkin opened by providing “the generous view” that SBF is young and “made a series of terrible, terrible, very, very bad decisions.” He also shared “the less generous view” that the 30-year-old “committed a massive fraud, that this is a Ponzi scheme, a manipulation of the system.” This might seem mundane, but in today’s hyper-ideological and hyper-partisan media ecosystem usually one viewpoint is given. Sorkin did anything but, providing the array of reactions while being unafraid of confrontation. Sorkin grilled SBF about contradictory and inconsistent statements such as SBF telling Bloomberg in August there was no connection between FTX and Alameda Research, a crypto exchange SBF also co-founded. For example, Sorkin asked about the connection between Alameda and FTX and noted that Alameda employees, including disgraced former CEO Caroline Ellison, were living in the penthouse with SBF. Sorkin held SBF’s feet to the fire. The interview was pure hardball, a far cry from the fawning coverage SBF has been gifted as a darling of the financial media. Job well done. |