Leo Schwartz of Fortune examines cryptocurrency news operation CoinDesk under its new owners, which forced editors to take down a story.
Schwartz reports, “The article was titled ‘I Watched Justin Sun Eat the World’s Most Expensive Banana. I Don’t Get It.’ It provided context about the art world and the banana-eating stunt, as well as background on Sun, including his run-in with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which has charged him with fraud. Sun and Tron have moved to dismiss the lawsuit. The Coindesk report also noted that Sun’s lawyers have threatened media outlets with legal action for reporting on the use of Tron, the blockchain he founded, for illicit finance.
“Soon, CoinDesk faced pressure of its own. After Sun’s team complained about the tone of the piece, CoinDesk’s owners, the crypto exchange Bullish, demanded editorial staff remove it from the publication’s website, according to sources familiar with the matter. Tron is a major sponsor of CoinDesk’s flagship Consensus conference series. (A version of the article still appears online through a syndication agreement with Yahoo News.)
“In response, sources close to CoinDesk say the site’s journalists raised concerns over editorial independence, including at a newsroom meeting last week with Bullish CEO Tom Farley and CoinDesk CEO Sara Stratoberdha, and asked for the article to be restored with an editor’s note.”
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