Investigative Integrity Under Scrutiny: Flaws in Bloomberg’s OneTaste Story?

Bloomberg News published a bombshell of a story on June 18, 2018. The story changed the lives of everyone mentioned in it, including the reporter, Ellen Huet.

Frank Report has undertaken a serious look at the story that destroyed a company, led to two criminal indictments, and got the writer a book contract.

This is my third in a series.  I will have a lot to say about why I have taken an interest in this story.  One of the reasons is that the Bloomberg story initially influenced my reporting on OneTaste. I found out I was wrong. I have corrected the record and now I think further exploration. Let us begin at the beginning, with Bloomberg’s blockbuster story, The Dark Side of the Orgasmic Meditation Company

Here are my two previous stories:

The Role of Media in Justice: Analyzing Bloomberg’s Influence on OneTaste’s FBI Investigation

Frank Parlato’s Letter to Bloomberg’s Ellen Huet: A Push for Transparency in OneTaste Reporting

It began with me asking the reporter Ellen Huet if she wanted to participate in an exploration with me that her original story was based on dishonest sources.

I asked her if she wanted to conduct a phone interview, or rather I should email her my questions.

Huet replied:

So I sent the following questions:

Hi Ellen;

My concern is that your story, The Dark Side of Orgasmic Meditation, was the cornerstone of the case against Nicole Daedone and Rachel Cherwitz, and I have evidence that the story was flawed.

Question 1:

Will you work with me to investigate the possible falsity of your sources’ stories, which ended up as the central narratives of the Dark Side of Orgasmic Meditation?

According to an email published by OneTaste, you purportedly wrote after the story’s publication:

“The stories focused heavily on the negative side of the company and on members’ bad experiences…. you both had sat in interviews with me and provided me with many other resources who could speak more positively about the company, and that side of OneTaste wasn’t very prominent in the story. That’s partly because of the magazine publishing format: we had a hard cap at a certain number of words and a mandate to focus on news. The editors believed lots had been written already about the benefits of OneTaste’s teachings, and wanted to focus on what hadn’t been reported before.”

Question 2

Did you write the email?

The Bloomberg Way says, “We write accurately and fairly, without bias or agenda of any kind, other than to provide news our readers need and want.” –pg 3

Question 3:

Would you agree that the editors who choose to permit you to write only the negative side and ignore other, more positive views do not conform with the Bloomberg Way?

I am sure you are busy with your present stories about Altman and other matters, including editing your book about OneTaste. But two women are busy defending themselves from the frightening prospects of a trial in federal court and the possibility of spending years in prison.

Question 4:

The tone of the story is that it assumes Michal’s story is honest. Did you confirm her story with any other individual?

You wrote,

“She (Michal) knew she didn’t want to get married like this, in the living room of a rented San Francisco house without her family’s support, yet she felt compelled to do it.”

I spoke with witnesses who witnessed Misha Safyan’s proposal to Michal and their wedding, and saw them before, after, and in between.

Everyone I spoke to described Michal as eager to get married. Several people, including Misha’s roommate in San Francisco, the woman who officiated their marriage, and Michal’s roommate in New York, said they and others counseled Michal not to rush into marriage and suggested alternatives such as a commitment ceremony without the legal element.

Michal’s NY roommate, Courtenay Lapovsky, told me:

“Michal insisted on getting married. And I, and several others who knew her, said ‘maybe wait.’ Many people had told her to slow down and not to rush into marriage.”

Question 5:

Are you interested in learning more about evidence that Michal did not feel compelled to marry?

Question 6:

If she lied to you, what steps would you consider taking to correct the record?

Question 7:

Would you agree that the best source to corroborate whether Michal felt compelled to marry is the man she married?

Question 8:

Were you aware of Misha Safyan’s appearance on the Trove Podcast, which came out shortly before your article?

Misha appeared under the pseudonym “Daniel.”

Misha (as Daniel) said of his first meeting with Michal and subsequent decision to be together.

He said, “I walked into the Brooklyn OM house. And I remember seeing Michal across the way in the kitchen, and she had a big smile on her face…I remember, like immediately being so so interested and attracted. And when I later found out that she was also doing the coaching program, I was really excited that we would be doing the same course together, she’d be coming to San Francisco once a month. … we just both admitted that we liked each other. And at that point, we were kind of like inseparable. We would decide which courses we want to do together … We really wanted to like build a life together.”

He makes no mention of anybody compelling Michal to marry.

Years earlier, he wrote an email to friends announcing he and Michal had ended their relationship:

He wrote before December 3, 2015:

“We even got legally married during that 2 week course back in August, which again was crazy because we did it without much rational thought, without our friends and families there, and we were riding the thrill of peak emotional experience.”

He suggests she did not feel compelled, but married “without much rational thought” while “riding the thrill of peak emotional experience.”

Would you agree that people who marry “riding the thrill of peak emotional experience” is not analogous to feeling compelled to marry?

Question 9:

Do you think corroboration of Michal’s story should have been part of your story?

Question 10:

Would you agree that Misha would be the best source to corroborate?

Question 11:

Were you aware that there was another version of Michal’s story before you published the article?

Question 12:

Do you believe there is now?

Question 13:

Are you willing to consider the evidence?

Ellen, I have only scratched the surface, but I thought I would ask these questions to encourage you to work with me to set the record straight.

I hope you will. If these two women are innocent and your stories led them to a wrongful conviction, I would guess you would want to correct the record. I know I would.

Please let me know your thoughts.

Thanks
Frank 

I await word from Ellen Huet.

Frank Parlato

Frank Parlato is an investigative journalist, media strategist, publisher, and legal consultant.

Frank Parlato

Frank Parlato is an investigative journalist, media strategist, publisher, and legal consultant.

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