Were the media fooled by Elizabeth Holmes?

For the media, the story of Elizabeth Holmes has proven irresistible: a brilliant young woman revolutionized blood tests in Silicon Valley. Fortune the magazine put on their cover. Forbes named her one of the richest women in the world. Time He chose as one of his 100 most influential people. At CBS News, Norah O Donnell interviewed Elizabeth Holmes for CBS This Morning.

"Here it is, this Silicon Valley celebrity who runs this incredibly secretive company.And the only story that most people could write was the story of Elizabeth Holmes," says O Donnell in the video above. "And it was a fantastic story."

But that was not true. This week on 60 minutes, O Donnell unveils the "massive fraud" of the company Holmes, Theranos, and discusses with insiders how Holmes has deceived the media and investors – and patients at risk.

Theranos was built around a groundbreaking technology that Holmes named Edison, a miniature blood analyzer that could have taken a blood stain on a patient's finger and used it to perform hundreds of laboratory tests. But a former employee of Theranos tells O Donnell that Edison that he saw never worked. Other employees allege that some blood samples gave contradictory and inconclusive results when resuming the test, and that Holmes lied to Walgreens when she told them that Edison was ready to be used on patients.

"I think media use was part of Theranos' strategy," said Katy Textor of 60 Minutes, who co-produced this week's story with Howard Rosenberg. "Theranos launched a partnership with Walgreens in September 2013, with a complimentary profile from Elizabeth Holmes the Wall Street newspaper, and he built from there. "

In the spring of 2015, O Donnell was profiling Holmes for CBS This Morning. O Donnell said while watching this interview shows "a story of incredible deception".

In this interview, O Donnell specifically asked Holmes how the Edison worked – but Holmes was never in the details. O & # 39; Donnell later asked Holmes what she thought of the criticism: what about those who say that a drop is not enough to do all the tests she claimed? Holmes did not answer that question either.

"Whenever you create something new, there should be questions," replied Holmes. "And for me, it's a sign that you've actually done something transformative."

Modeling on Steve Jobs, Holmes promised revolutionary ideas and black camisoles. She has been drinking green juice and is committed to saving hundreds of billions of dollars in Medicare and Medicaid. If the product she invented was unsuccessful, the character she created was certainly – he convinced many personalities, including Henry Kissinger and James Mattis, who sat on the Theranos board.

"She deceived everybody, everyone," says O Donnell. "She had hundreds of employees from MIT, Harvard, Apple, and the smartest people in Silicon Valley went to work for her, they believed in her. the media.I mean that there were a lot of prominent and very intelligent people who adhered to the myth of Elizabeth Holmes. "

Although media attention initially boosted Holmes 'nationwide profile, Textor says Holmes' story is not a failure for journalism. On the contrary, she says it shows what investigative reports can do. the the Wall Street newspaper, who published the article on Theranos very early, ends up unraveling his myth through a multi-month investigation led by journalist John Carreyrou.

"That's the purpose of journalism, is not it?" O 'Donnell said. "Denouncing lies, lies of our government, these are public institutions, but it takes time to discover these lies."

Editor's note: In June, Elizabeth Holmes resigned as CEO of Theranos while the Justice Department accused her of electronic fraud. She is accused of perpetrating a "multi-million dollar project" to defraud investors, doctors and patients. The current CEO of Theranos told investors this month that he was running out of money and that he would be forced to sell his remaining assets, permanently dissolving the blood testing company. .

The video above was published on May 20, 2018 and produced by Ann Silvio and Lisa Orlando. It was edited by Lisa Orlando.