[abruzzi]

I haven’t seen the film, but it is interesting that at the very end of the interview the questioner gets to the point of “we’re you too easy on her?” His response seems to be that he was more interested in criticizing Silicon Valley and it’s “fake it until you make it” or “over promise, way under deliver” mentality, and didn’t want to paint her as a bad apple that would let SV off the hook.

[jonny_eh]

Exactly, it seems as though he felt like he couldn't blame both SV and Holmes at the same time, so chose to blame the SV culture. I'm still interested in seeing the film and judging for myself though.

[txcwpalpha]

I don't get the same impression. Not having seen the docu and only reading the article, it's hard to tell, but based on that last few paragraphs in this article, it seems exactly like he is blaming both SV and Holmes at the same time. He specifically says a few times in the article that Holmes was a fraud, that she was not a victim, and that even within "fake it til you make it" culture, she as an extreme outlier. But he also is drawing attention to the fact that there is/was an entire culture of people supporting her, rooting for her, and trying to discredit anyone who called her out on her fraud (there are people doing this even now!).

Personally, I'll be pretty happy if the documentary calls more attention to SV's broader role in this. I loved Carreyrou's book, but I thought it, and the rest of the coverage of Theranos, falls quite short in exploring how Holmes and Balwani aren't the only bad people in this story. Holmes practically had an entire army of people enabling her (and even directly aiding her) through their fraud, from Dubois to Shultz to Mattis to Biden, to all of the SV investors and cheerleaders who didn't do their due diligence. Not all of those people necessarily deserve to be punished for their supporting of her, but it's also important to realize that Holmes didn't magically accomplish all of this fraud on her own.

That said, the response from Gibney in the last part of the article is kinda bizarre. The mention of Abu Ghraib is totally out of place, and he even attempts to draw a weird comparison between Holmes and Hitler, of all people.

[Alex3917]

> The mention of Abu Ghraib is totally out of place

It's because he made Taxi to the Dark Side. His point is that he's trying to be logically consistent in his ethical reasoning.

[txcwpalpha]

Ah, thanks for that. That makes it a lot less out of place to bring up.

[AndrewBissell]

Definitely agreed there needs to be a broader focus than just the character drama around Holmes. Every fraud of this magnitude requires a huge ecosystem of enablers and they should all be held to account.