The Bitcoin Cult vs. the Newsweek Cult

By Bill Maher

Newsweek recently re-launched as a print magazine, and the cover of their first issue was a big scoop: they identified the mystery genius that invented Bitcoin. Except they probably got the wrong guy. The creator (or creators, it was all done online and anonymously) of Bitcoin went by the name Satoshi Nakamoto, so Newsweek found a 65-year-old engineer in California with the name Satoshi Nakamoto and decided, based on a quick conversation, that it was him. But since then, evidence is mounting that they blew it.

How could Newsweek make such a major journalistic goof? Maybe because Newsweek is no longer run by journalists, it's run by a weird South Korean cult. No, not the Moonies, another weird South Korean cult. IBT Media, the company that bought Newsweek last year from Barry Diller, is heavily influenced by David Jang, a Sun Myung Moon wannabe who calls himself the "Second Coming Christ." 

The irony is that another cult - the cult of libertarian Bitcoin fanboys who think their play money is going to make them rich - is largely responsible for poking holes in the Newsweek story.  

It's too bad that what passes for fact-checking these days involves one cult going after another cult.