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Comment by diversionfactor | Hacker News Reader

Oh no, consequences for the coastal elites, the horror.

Is anyone suggesting that there is a 'horror' happening here? I've never met anyone who sympathized with her, and I live right near Theranos HQ. Mostly I hear entrepreneurs lament how much good they could have done if they'd had a fraction of the money she conned out of investors.

Elizabeth Holmes runs in elite circles, and other members of that circle have been running puff pieces in her favor (e.g. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/07/business/elizabeth-holmes...) or writing her reference letters testifying to her character (e.g. https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/sen-cory-booker-sends-l...).

Anyone who thinks that NYT article is a puff piece can't possibly have read it very closely. The writer is very clear that they realize they are being courted for PR purposes, about how Holmes is attempting to draw a distinct line between the past "Elizabeth" and the new "Liz", and ends the article politely refusing to be pulled in further. The article could have been harsher, but it does not portray Holmes in a good light.

I disagree (and apparently her editor did too):

> My editor laughed at me when I shared these impressions, telling me (and I quote), “Amy Chozick, you got rolled!”

Obviously the editor eventually signed off on the piece, but it was as much a puff piece as I've ever seen a convicted felon get!

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