More than 450 journalists get looped into email thread with pharma bro Martin Shkreli
It was a summer Friday like no other.
At 2:20 a.m., an email that appeared to come from Martin Shkreli -- the "world's most hated man" for his decision to hike up the price of an anti-parasite drug used by HIV patients -- arrived in the inbox of more than 450 members of the media.
With the subject line "Wu-Tang Clan - Once Upon A Time In Shaolin," he offered the release of one track of the exclusive album he had purchased for $2 million.
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The 456 email addresses were cc'ed and included four employees of Mashable.
The thread received its first reply-all at 4 a.m., but it began gaining steam with members of the media in the morning hours with several requests to get off the thread.
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But while Shkreli is confirmed to be the sole owner of the Wu-Tang Clan album, his email was not genuine.
It wasn't the real Shkreli.
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Not to worry.
The real Shkreli was added at 10:12 a.m., and he took to Twitter to comment on the event.
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He also replied to the thread, which for the most part had included references to being "excluded from the narrative," Harambe memes and gifs.
But after Huffington Post reporter Andy Campbell referred to Shkreli as "the worst," he replied, "I’m so seriously. Does anyone have tips for Andy Campbell to live in NYC on a journalist’s salary? The poverty line is a tough one to wrestle with."
Shkreli later responded to someone's inclusion of a gif of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton with, "i feel like a need a shot of holy water with a bleach chaser after seeing this hillary gif."
By noon, the thread had reached more than 100 reply-all messages.
Happy Friday.
Kerry Flynn is a business reporter for Mashable covering the tech industry. She previously reported on social media companies, mobile apps and startups for International Business Times. She has also written for The Huffington Post, Forbes and Money magazine. Kerry studied environmental science and economics at Harvard College, where she led The Harvard Crimson's metro news and design teams and played mellophone in the Band. When not listening to startup pitches, she runs half-marathons, plays with puppies and pretends to like craft beer.
