The Bloomberg journalist who fell in love with Martin Shkreli

Stephanie Clifford writes for Elle magazine about former Bloomberg News reporter Christie Smythe, who fell for convicted pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli, who remains in prison.

Clifford reports, “Says Smythe, ‘Lots of reporters were tweeting or writing stories about interactions with Martin, and I had a rich store of knowledge I hadn’t been able to use in my book or an article.’ Smythe wanted to tell a different narrative of Shkreli: that he’d built his companies from scratch, that he could summon data with a near-photographic memory, that his villainous public persona was a mask. ‘I wanted to get the rest of the story out there,’ Smythe says. ‘And I couldn’t.’

“In summer 2018, her editor summoned her to a conference room at Bloomberg headquarters. When she arrived, her editor and an HR rep sat waiting. They’d already warned her about her tweets regarding Shkreli, which she believed she’d complied with, though she continued tweeting about him some. Now her superiors told her that behavior was biased and unprofessional. Smythe understood their concern and quit on the spot, hugging her editor on her way out of the building. ‘Ms. Smythe’s conduct with regard to Mr. Shkreli was not consistent with expectations for a Bloomberg journalist,’ the Bloomberg spokesperson says. ‘It became apparent that it would be best to part ways. Ms. Smythe tendered her resignation, and we accepted it.”

Read more here.