VC investor blames business journalism for Theranos’ downfall

Tim Draper

An investor on blood testing company Theranos said in an interview on Cheddar that downfall was due to aggressive media coverage.

Venture capital investor Tim Draper specifically pointed out Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou, who has written a book called “Bad Blood” about Theranos and whose reporting was in the forefront.

“That guy made a lot of money off of this,” said Draper. “Journalists are looking at that and saying ‘Hey, all I have to do is take down Zuckerberg and I get a movie deal.'”

He said the federal government’s fraud charges last week against Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes were due to the media coverage.

“The reason they’re looking at the facts is that the media created such a strong frenzy that they had to look at it,” said Draper. “If I am the government and the media has created this frenzy, I am going to have to look into it.”

You can listen to the interview here.

Last week, New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet praised Carreyrou’s reporting, calling it some of the best business journalism in years. It has been widely praised.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.