Categories: OLD Media Moves

NYT’s fictional Sorkin column mentioned in “Breaking Bad”

New York Times business columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin has penned a short, fictional column that goes along with the story line in the television show “Breaking Bad.”

He was mentioned in Sunday night’s episode as having written the column.’

Here is an excerpt:

Last week, the founders of Gray Matter Technologies gave a $28 million grant to create a drug abuse treatment center throughout the Southwest. The family, which is said to be worth more than $1 billion — Gray Matter’s market value is $2.16 billion — was heralded by advocates of drug control and treatment throughout the country. In Washington, the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy said in a statement that the Schwartzes are among “the next generation of great American philanthropists tackling one of the biggest epidemics confronting our country: illicit drugs.”
Maybe it is cynical to suggest, but the timing and backstory of the grant is raising red flags among some investors on Wall Street and prompting some to ask: Is the donation a publicity stunt meant to mask troubling news about the company?
Little known except to a small cadre of industry insiders, the Schwartzes have been scrambling in recent weeks to keep a long-running secret from being revealed. Gray Matter’s stock has sunk over the last week as speculation has mounted that the company could be tied to a drug kingpin in Albuquerque who has made national headlines: Walter White, the former chemistry teacher turned international methamphetamine dealer known as “Heisenberg.”
According to people close to the company, Mr. White was a co-founder of Gray Matter and was a former college sweetheart of Mrs. Schwartz. The company’s name – Gray Matter – was a mix of the Schwartz name, which is German for “black” and Mr. White’s name, hence “gray.”