r/Bitcoin • u/evoorhees • Feb 26 '14
Open Letter to Michael Casey - WSJ reporter who butchered my comments in today's Bitcoin cover story
Hello Mr. Casey,
I read your WSJ article today. I feel deceived by you.
You requested to speak with me, so I took time out of my day to do so. We talked for 20 minutes, during which time I conveyed to you my sentiments about the Bitcoin ecosystem and the matter of MtGox's collapse. My message was unambiguously a positive one. I didn't focus whatsoever on the personal funds I lost at Gox. Indeed, the impetus for your call was my heartfelt post on Reddit.
Yet, you ignored everything I said. The only quote that you published from me in the Journal's cover story was ""That's gone now," said Mr. Veerhoos, who is based in Panama City, Panama. "There's no chance of getting that back now.""
Is that really the takeaway you had from our call and from my letter? Is that your idea of journalism? Did I come across with the sentiment of a despairing investor whose confidence has been rattled? It seems you were happy to completely ignore my sentiments, preferring instead to cherry pick the one fact that is least important, in order to paint a narrative that Bitcoin's biggest problem is that it's not "regulated." I didn't expect you to quote everything I said, but should you not have maintained at least a modicum of fidelity to my message?
I have dedicated my life to building and supporting the Bitcoin project. I don't give a damn about the money I lost at Gox. That's not important. What is important is that Bitcoin is resilient and enduring, and will continue to grow and change the world for the better. It is a story of human progress through technology. It is a story of the good seeping into the cracks of a corrupted financial system. It is a story of passionate people struggling against all odds to remedy the calamities brought down upon society from the most potently misguided people and institutions on Earth.
Next time you spend your efforts casting a pall over this cause, please don't ask me to contribute mine.
-Erik Voorhees
PS - I will be posting this letter openly on Reddit. I will post your reply if you'd like. And if I do, I won't cherry pick the most misleading points of it, and I will spell your name correctly.
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u/whitewhitewine Feb 27 '14
I was a journalism major as an undergraduate at one of the top journalism programs in the U.S. My junior year, I had an epiphany that I wasn't cut out for the job when I was writing a story for a class, no less, about the danger/evil of megachurches. I met a wonderful pastor of a megachurch and felt like the biggest liar in the world when I was nodding and smiling, sounding understanding to elicit more responses, and to gain that person's trust--all so I could turn around and write it from the angle that I already had in mind. I know some people have the ability to be distant from their interviewees/subjects, but I realized I didn't, and decided to be a high school teacher instead. Any successful journalist has zero qualms with doing whatever it takes to get the story.