> they just have been long fired from their news rooms and have accepted that the owners of the mass media are in control of the narrative

The only useless stories on FTX I’ve seen has been through HN comments calling them out. The FT, Bloomberg (in particular, Matt Levine) and Journal have each called it a fraud from the beginning.

Bloomberg has been been pro-crypto, and a friend to SBF in particular. Levine writes a great column, but he never called FTX a fraud (if you’re referring to the podcast episode that is well known, they were discussing other crypto businesses there, not FTX). In fact he has discussed how his basic assumption that SBF was competent and making money lead him astray. He didn’t consider the possibility that their trading strategies didn’t continue to work into the ‘20s, even though they were making statements on twitter that kinda indicated that they were simply long crypto and no longer successful with complex trades.

Levine wrote a whole enjoyable issue of Bloomberg about crypto that was moderately bullish! He thinks it’s kinda neat. That’s nowhere near the hype you hear from the bitcoin weirdos, but, you know, much more bullish than “a scam that should be made illegal,” which is also a mainstream take.

> wrote a whole enjoyable issue of Bloomberg about crypto that was moderately bullish! He thinks it’s kinda neat

You may be missing the sarcasm. I think crypto is neat, intellectually. I also think it’s a scam, and everyone in it will lose money and reputation, but I’m not going to put one hundred percent confidence in that view.

These are mutually compatible opinions. Read Levine’s insider trading takes and see if you think he’s pro insider trading.

Matt Levine is an opinion columnist, his job is to give commentary rather than to break news. Bloomberg overall has been pro-crypto (they have a crypto publication), but Levine's tone has always struck me as “finds it interesting but pretty skeptical of the real-world value”.

Here's a link to the (excellent) crypto story you mentioned: https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2022-the-crypto-story/

I was referring to the NYTimes and WaPo puff pieces fwiw