Opinion: Pirate Wires’ Trump token reporting was irresponsible and lazy
Yesterday Pirates Wires, a ‘new new media company’ operated by Michael Solana, CMO of Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, put out a tweet saying it had a scoop. The scoop? That the Donald Trump team was launching a meme coin on Solana called DJT with Barron Trump (Trump’s youngest son) spearheading the project. Michael Solana even shared a contract address for the coin. So, what’s wrong with this reporting? For starters, there’s no verifiable evidence that anyone from the Trump team is involved with the coin, Pirate Wires and Solana never explained how they acquired the information, and no other outlet has been able to confirm the statement — including Fox Business, CoinDesk, and Decrypt. Trump himself, who almost always presents a new project with fanfare, pronouncements, and silly videos on Truth Social has also been silent on the matter. What Pirate Wires did yesterday is journalism at its very worst and deserves to be scrutinized, criticized, and perhaps even...