How the media lies about me: Bloomberg & Politico

Why is media trust at absolute zero levels? Actions like this.

Yesterday was fun! I had the pleasure of dealing with Politico and Bloomberg articles about me, a double feature of big media lies.

We’ll start with Bloomberg, who wrote the insanely misleading headline: “Ex-‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli Now Living in Queens on $2,500 a Month”.

Wrong and irresponsible, but what do you expect from Bloomberg? The implication of “living in Queens” (a lovely, if not grittier and urban borough of New York City) is clear. The context that is important here is that I’m not allowed to live in Manhattan! As an Eastern District of New York (Queens, Brooklyn, Long Island) defendant, I’m actually prohibited from entering the Southern District of New York (Manhattan, Bronx, Westchester) without permission. So, no, it is not my choice to live in an outer borough. I also live in the largest and nicest apartment I’ve ever lived in. My sister does not live with me.

Next, I do have a consulting agreement for $2,500 a month—I do this as a favor, to a friend. I do not live on $2,500 a month. My personal AWS, Heroku and OpenAI bills are over $10,000 a month. $2,500, as anyone knows, doesn’t cover monthly food costs in New York City. And, I’m feeding three: myself, new girlfriend and new cat Nibbles. So, this is just an intentionally misleading characterization. Bloomberg’s reporters have no idea what I live on or off of—nor will they exert any effort to find out, because this story gets Lenovo (the ad I see on the story) the clicks Bloomberg needs to subsidize its perennially shitty media subsidiary. The court document that forms the basis for the article did mention I also have another job: DL Software, which does pay me an unspecified salary. That’s my main day job, as anyone who knows anything about me, knows. Except for Bloomberg’s reporters. It’s just willful ignorance. Why let facts get in the way of a good story?

I don’t know what the impetus for Bloomberg is to lie like this. I am competing with Bloomberg on fintech software. I dated a Bloomberg reporter who explained to me many times how unprofessional and corrupt the organization is. Feelings take precedence over facts, which is par for the media course. Reporters feel like they can change the world with their pen and right any of society’s wrongs with their words. One of the reporters on the story, Pat Hurtado, apparently told the other reporter on the story, Erik, that I “lunged at her” in the courtroom. Patricia is a short old lady. Anyone who knows me understands that such a thing would not be in my character. I’ve never lunged at anyone, especially not an elderly woman. I have to say that many women do imagine and hope that I would lunge at them. Perhaps there is some confusion there.

Anyway, what I would assume is that Bloomberg attempted to shame or smear me into this idea that I’m living a very different lifestyle from before prison. I am living the exact same lifestyle, though. Bloomberg mentioned that I used to sip fine wines. Well, I still do. They mentioned my art collection. Still have that, too. The Wu-Tang album was brought up. I timed the sale of the album to take advantage of the NFT boom and made a great profit and still kept the mp3s, which I’ve played online a number of times since returning. My point: The media tells the story they want to be true instead of the story that is actually true. My new software company is off to a fast start and is already worth a bit: we’re considering a 3x increase in our valuation, for example.

Well, thankfully, the Hamptons is included in the Eastern District of New York.

On to Politico.

Politico wrote an article about my relationship with Vivek Ramaswamy. Politico is owned by some German media giant. I trolled the reporter by demanding compensation for the article. When denied, I offered to “bless the cash app” of the reporter in exchange for a favorable story. I have been around media for twenty years. No one takes money or gives money for an article. But it annoys journalists to even hear the proposition. Anyway, the phrase “bless your cash app” made it into this article. That made me very happy and entertained countless Shkreli fans.

Run-of-the-mill successful troll/common Shkreli W, right? No, it gets stranger. The Politico writer and his lackeys were showing off the dialogue on Twitter, presumably as some kind of ‘dunk’ on me. Of course, all of the comments explained to the hapless political observers that they’ve been had and they deserve what they get. Media has become a laughing stock and more subjects of stories will use it as I have.

Why is the media humorless and naive? The lack of self-awareness is a desperate attempt to cling to a time when media was respected and a source of truth. The events of the last decade have exposed the media as the occasional partner of the government’s propaganda and the tool of furthering reporter’s narratives and dreams of social influence.

My repeated question to the Politico writer was “why do I need you” to a) talk to Vivek, b) say anything about anything, etc. I sent two TikToks I gave an aggregate minute of thought to, and received 500,000 views. In the past, media was the gatekeeper of all mass access. You used to say “Hey mom, I’m on TV!” With the loss of that role, having passed it to social media, media itself is now clueless as what to do or what its role is. The bankruptcy of Vice, the end of Buzzfeed and Gawker, and what I assume will continue with Vox, STAT, and all other digital media, especially if we see an economic downturn, indicates the future. The rise of TikTok, Substack and Twitter’s renaissance demonstrates where media is heading.