Luis G. Rendon/The Every day Beast/Instagram
Crypto journalist Tiffany Fong railed towards The Every day Mail and The New York Submit this week for his or her reporting on her latest assembly with beleaguered FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, calling the right-leaning tabloids “fairly gross” for “sexualizing” her of their protection.
Fong confirmed on Wednesday that she met with Bankman-Fried on Tuesday night time at his mother and father’ dwelling. The one-time crypto king, who was charged this month on a number of counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud, is at the moment below home arrest after posting an enormous $250 million bond and is scheduled to enter a plea subsequent week in a Manhattan federal courtroom.
Fong, who had beforehand been in a position to get Bankman-Fried to divulge heart's contents to her about his political donations and polyamorous way of life, offered some particulars of her dialog with the disgraced ex-billionaire to each the Submit and Mail. On the similar time, she famous that her interview with Bankman-Fried was all enterprise.
When the Submit’s article got here out on Wednesday, nevertheless, Fong was incensed with how her assembly with Bankman-Fried was framed. She particularly took challenge with innuendoes throughout the article, together with options that she had a relationship with the alleged fraudster together with the inclusion of photographs of her in a bikini.
“FTX dangerous boy Sam Bankman-Fried’s comfortable home arrest was brightened up Tuesday by a go to from an attractive single crypto influencer who stated he appeared ‘surprisingly optimistic’ forward of his trial on a number of fraud fees, The Submit has discovered,” the article started.
“[J]esus fuckin christ,” Fong reacted to the newspaper’s Twitter submit on Wednesday, which prominently featured a photograph of her donning a bikini.
She later tweeted that she “clearly was not sporting a bikini” throughout her assembly with Bankman-Fried, including that the Submit had acted “fairly gross” because it “determined to creep through previous pics” of her Instagram.
On Thursday afternoon, Fong shared that a Mail reporter had reached out to her and famous that she was “not proud of the pic utilized by the New York Submit.” The reporter additionally emailed her that “it will get below their pores and skin if you happen to gave use an unique that they don’t have in your assembly with SBF.”
“As quickly as I supplied a sliver of commentary in response to their questions, @DailyMail instantly switched their picture of me to a bikini picture,” she tweeted, including the “face vomiting” emoji.
Fong shared a few of her electronic mail exchanges with the reporter together with screenshots of the Mail’s article at completely different instances. One featured picture was simply her headshot alongside Bankman-Fried exterior the Manhattan courthouse. The opposite screenshot of the article had her unique picture switched out for an Instagram image of her in a bikini. (Actually, the Mail’s piece contains a number of photographs of her in a swimsuit.)
Hours later, Fong famous the Mail had lastly eliminated the bikini picture. She additional posted an electronic mail from the tabloid’s reporter complaining about how she “dragged” him on Twitter as a result of “I had 100% nothing to do with a bikini pic getting used.”
In the end, Fong puzzled why one other latest Bankman-Fried customer wasn’t being subjected to the identical insinuations for his assembly with the previous FTX chief as she was.
“Michael Lewis truly ‘spent a number of hours’ with Sam Bankman-Fried earlier than I did,” she stated, referencing the acclaimed The Huge Quick creator. “Is Michael Lewis being sexualized & bombarded with questions on whether or not or not they ‘banged’?”
When reached for remark, Fong informed The Every day Beast, “I don’t have a ton so as to add” exterior of her tweets, including that she’s “making an attempt to not give way more commentary on the scenario.” The Mail and the Submit didn't instantly reply to requests for remark.