Caitlin Ostroff
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ceostroff.bsky.social
Caitlin Ostroff
@ceostroff.bsky.social
4.6K followers 520 following 39 posts
Data reporter following the money for @wsj.com using words, numbers and code. Co-founder @journalismmentors.bsky.social. Tips? https://github.com/ceostroff/contact
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ceostroff.bsky.social
Caitlin Ostroff @ceostroff.bsky.social · Nov 14
👋 Introducing myself for Bluesky: I'm a data reporter for The Wall Street Journal. What does that mean? I'm interested in information whether from the Internet, FOIA, leaked data, etc to make sense of the world. I focus mostly on politics and crypto. Drop me tips: github.com/ceostroff/co...
GitHub - ceostroff/contact: Secure contact info for Caitlin Ostroff, WSJ
Secure contact info for Caitlin Ostroff, WSJ. Contribute to ceostroff/contact development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com
ceostroff.bsky.social
Scoop for @wsj.com in response to our Polymarket investigation, w/@klong.bsky.social and @neilmhta.bsky.social
www.wsj.com/finance/regu...
Exclusive | Lawmakers Call for Federal Probe of Polymarket Over Deceptive Advertising
Two senators asked regulators to probe Polymarket’s promotion of fake bets following the Journal’s reporting.
www.wsj.com
June 26, 2026 at 4:14 PM
Reposted by Caitlin Ostroff
tobyn.bsky.social
The WSJ Polymarket piece is wild, h/t @alphaville.ft.com further reading www.wsj.com/business/med...
They Looked Like They Were Getting Rich on Polymarket—but None of It Was Real
The prediction market has flooded social media with deceptive videos by paid creators. ‘Is this just free money?’
www.wsj.com
June 23, 2026 at 8:47 AM
Reposted by Caitlin Ostroff
kashhill.bsky.social
They look like they're winning big on prediction markets. But it's just fake advertising. Great investigation from the WSJ: www.wsj.com/business/med...
They Looked Like They Were Getting Rich on Polymarket—but None of It Was Real
The prediction market has flooded social media with deceptive videos by paid creators. ‘Is this just free money?’
www.wsj.com
June 22, 2026 at 2:19 PM
ceostroff.bsky.social
My colleague @neilmhta.bsky.social takes you through our @wsj.com analysis and how to spot the deceptive Polymarket videos here.

Come for the journalism, stay for Neil saying "Bro, what?" (Or vice versa)
www.wsj.com/video/polyma...
Polymarket Paid Creators to Post Fake Wins. We Analyzed 1,100 Videos to Prove It
The prediction market has flooded social media with videos showing staged bets. WSJ’s Neil Mehta explains how to spot a fake.
www.wsj.com
June 22, 2026 at 12:53 PM
ceostroff.bsky.social
Our @wsj.com investigation into Polymarket’s deceptive marketing campaign in print today.

Full article here: www.wsj.com/business/med...
June 22, 2026 at 12:41 PM
Reposted by Caitlin Ostroff
ericlipton.nytimes.com
WSJ: They Looked Like They Were Getting Rich on Polymarket—but None of It Was Real

The prediction market has flooded social media with deceptive videos by paid creators, according to a Wall Street Journal investigation

Free link

www.wsj.com/business/med...
They Looked Like They Were Getting Rich on Polymarket—but None of It Was Real
The prediction market has flooded social media with deceptive videos by paid creators. ‘Is this just free money?’
www.wsj.com
June 21, 2026 at 12:51 AM
Reposted by Caitlin Ostroff
klong.bsky.social
NEW: A college student filmed the exciting moment he won $100,000 – except the bet wasn’t real.

A flood of videos showing fake trades and fake wins, is fueling Polymarket’s hype machine, our @wsj.com investigation found.

It's part of a secret campaign for Americans’ attention on social media.
June 21, 2026 at 5:16 PM
ceostroff.bsky.social
1/ After seeing a lot of Polymarket videos on social media, my @WSJ colleagues and I wanted to understand Polymarket’s marketing. After watching a bunch of videos, we noticed that the website featured in them was almost, but not quite, identical to Polymarket’s actual platform.
June 21, 2026 at 2:54 AM
ceostroff.bsky.social
On May 3, Epstein fired off an email to Kathy Ruemmler. He wrote that Jean-Luc Brunel was planning to go to prosecutors the following week and one of Brunel’s friends had “asked for 3 million dollars so that Jean Luc would not go in.”

New w/@khadeejasafdar.bsky.social
www.wsj.com/us-news/epst...
Exclusive | The Accomplice Who Was Going to Testify Against Jeffrey Epstein—Then Went Dark
Model scout Jean-Luc Brunel was negotiating to provide prosecutors with evidence against the sex offender in 2016 but ultimately backed out.
www.wsj.com
February 19, 2026 at 2:35 PM
ceostroff.bsky.social
What happens when a bunch of business journalists are asked to try and break an AI vending machine? Well, let's just say the
@wsj.com data journalism team has a new pet fish.

Read, and watch the video. 🐟
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anth...
We Let AI Run Our Office Vending Machine. It Lost Hundreds of Dollars.
An AI agent ran a snack operation in the WSJ newsroom. It gave away a free PlayStation, ordered a live fish—and taught us lessons about the future of AI.
www.wsj.com
December 18, 2025 at 2:50 PM
ceostroff.bsky.social
The @wsj.com is growing its visual investigations team. Come work with me!
dowjones.jobs/new-york-ny/...
Dow Jones breaks stories, influences ideas, advances business intelligence and cultural interest, exposes the events that turn markets, the breakthroughs that transform art and drives invention.
dowjones.jobs
October 28, 2025 at 4:27 PM
ceostroff.bsky.social
It's been a minute since I cleaned the same dataset from dozens of states and I forgot how...varied they can be. #PartyLikeADataJournalist
September 26, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Reposted by Caitlin Ostroff
johnwest.bsky.social
Toxic fumes are leaking Into airplanes, sickening crews and passengers. The problem is getting worse and not much is being done about it.

From Ben Katz, me, and @andrewtangel.bsky.social for @wsj.com.

🔓 www.wsj.com/business/air...
Text of the article, reading: > The Journal’s reporting—based on a review of more than one million FAA and National Aeronautics and Space Administration reports, thousands of pages of documents and research papers and more than 100 interviews—shows that aircraft manufacturers and their airline customers have played down health risks, successfully lobbied against safety measures, and made cost-saving changes that increased the risks to crew and passengers. > The fumes—sometimes described as smelling of “wet dog,” “Cheetos” or “nail polish”—have led to emergency landings, sickened passengers and affected pilots’ vision and reaction times midflight, according to official reports. > Most odors in aircraft aren’t toxic, and neither are all vapors. The effects are often fleeting, mild or present no symptoms. > But they can also be longer-lasting and severe, according to doctors, medical records and affected crew members.
September 14, 2025 at 1:15 AM
Reposted by Caitlin Ostroff
johnwest.bsky.social
Over @wsj.com, my colleagues Sara Randazzo, @ceostroff.bsky.social, and Shane Shifflett have a deep, fascinating look at how researchers are amending grant language to keep federal funding and avoid getting flagged in the Trump administration’s push against "DEI." www.wsj.com/health/scien...
An excerpt from the article: Scientists are removing words like “diverse” and “disparities” from hundreds of federal grant renewals to avoid getting flagged in the Trump administration’s focus on eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs, a Wall Street Journal analysis shows. At least 600 research projects funded by the National Institutes of Health have been modified in the fiscal year starting in October to remove terms associated with diversity, equity and inclusion, the Journal analysis found. Nearly all of those projects were multiyear grants that had already been approved but were up for routine annual reviews. The modified grants were worth $480 million this cycle. The most frequently deleted term was “diverse,” removed in 300 instances, followed by “underrepresented.” In some cases, scientists are yanking words that aren’t DEI-related at all, but could be flagged as such, including references to “discrimination” of antibodies in transplant patients. Other changes researchers are making are more substantive, shifting the scope of projects. Scientists caution that research on medical issues affecting minority communities is being de-emphasized. Some grants up for routine yearly renewals sat in limbo until scientists submitted the revisions. Funding delays at times led to layoffs and disrupted ongoing research.
August 23, 2025 at 6:45 PM
ceostroff.bsky.social
Epstein was discussed by prominent right-wing podcasters in more than 3,000 episodes across nearly 125 podcasts this year, a @wsj.com analysis found. Those conversations grew more than eightfold in the last 3 weeks despite Trump’s admonishment that MAGA drop the issue.
www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
How the Epstein Scandal Fractured Trump’s Relationship With MAGA
A Wall Street Journal analysis of thousands of podcast transcripts shows the conservative conversation on Epstein has swelled in recent weeks.
www.wsj.com
July 30, 2025 at 8:59 PM
Reposted by Caitlin Ostroff
jeffhorwitz.bsky.social
With Meta out there banging on the "snitches get stitches" drum, seemed like a good time to lay out my best guidance for tech industry employees who feel a need to speak up. Below are a few notes:

www.theverge.com/labor/621059...
Meta fires 20 employees for leaking
The company announced the firings after a string of leaks about CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s internal comments.
www.theverge.com
February 27, 2025 at 10:17 PM
Reposted by Caitlin Ostroff
ire.org
IRE is offering a new member benefit for our 50th anniversary and spring member drive!

Join or renew your membership by April 28 to receive a 50% discounted subscription to DeleteMe.

The service works to remove personal data online and ensure digital safety. www.ire.org/discount-on-...
Join IRE now and get a discount on digital security services - Investigative Reporters & Editors
Join or renew your IRE membership by April 28, 2025 to receive a 50% discounted subscription to DeleteMe services.
www.ire.org
March 31, 2025 at 12:37 PM
Reposted by Caitlin Ostroff
robbarry.bsky.social
Representatives of President Trump’s family have held talks to take a financial stake in the U.S. arm of crypto exchange Binance, according to people familiar with the matter www.wsj.com/finance/curr... by @ceostroff.bsky.social et al
Exclusive | Trump Family Has Held Deal Talks With Binance Following Crypto Exchange’s Guilty Plea
The discussions for a stake in Binance’s U.S. arm come as founder Changpeng Zhao has pushed for the administration to pardon him for his own 2023 guilty plea.
www.wsj.com
March 13, 2025 at 1:22 PM
ceostroff.bsky.social
Slides to our session are available at bit.ly/nicar25-cryptocurrency #NICAR25
March 8, 2025 at 4:01 PM
ceostroff.bsky.social
Have questions about crypto, why it's suddenly in the news and how to track it using data? @jeremybmerrill.com and I have (at least some) answers. Come to our panel at 2:15! #NICAR25
schedules.ire.org/nicar-2025/i...
NICAR 2025 schedule | March 6-9, 2025 | Minneapolis
Welcome to the #NICAR25 conference schedule!
schedules.ire.org
March 7, 2025 at 5:41 PM
ceostroff.bsky.social
The Journal is hiring for a data reporter. Come work with me!
wsj.jobs/new-york-ny/...
Dow Jones breaks stories, influences ideas, advances business intelligence and cultural interest, exposes the events that turn markets, the breakthroughs that transform art and drives invention.
wsj.jobs
February 24, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Reposted by Caitlin Ostroff
johnwest.bsky.social
My colleagues, @ceostroff.bsky.social, Shane Shifflett, and James Benedict have a fantastic look at DOGE's savings claims: "A WSJ analysis of government data found that many claims of savings were overstated and ‘woke’ cuts were only a tiny fraction of the total." www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
While DOGE hasn’t offered details about all of the stated savings, it has posted a list of more than 1,100 canceled contracts to its website. As of Friday, it said the savings from these contracts amounted to about $7 billion. The Journal analysis projects the actual savings could be closer to $2.6 billion over the next year if spending levels remained constant—and about 2% of the funds would have gone to contracts related to DEI. Research-focused agencies were among the top targets for cuts, including the Education Department and the Department of Health and Human Services, where DOGE terminated contracts costing the government more than $900 million last year. DOGE terminated more than 60 Health and Human Services contracts including a clinical evaluation of an Alzheimer’s and traumatic brain injury drug and a study of smokers with chronic lung disease. DOGE described these as “administrative expenses.”
February 22, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Reposted by Caitlin Ostroff
ceostroff.bsky.social
New year, new @journalismmentors.bsky.social website. @adrianalacy.com and I revamped our *free* journalism mentorship platform for students, young professionals, pros, etc.

Want a mentor? journalismmentors.com/media-mentors/
Want to be a mentor?
adrianalacyconsulting.typeform.com/to/ULcCOEqv?...
Media Mentor Archive - Journalism Mentors
journalismmentors.com
January 2, 2025 at 10:27 PM
ceostroff.bsky.social
New year, new @journalismmentors.bsky.social website. @adrianalacy.com and I revamped our *free* journalism mentorship platform for students, young professionals, pros, etc.

Want a mentor? journalismmentors.com/media-mentors/
Want to be a mentor?
adrianalacyconsulting.typeform.com/to/ULcCOEqv?...
Media Mentor Archive - Journalism Mentors
journalismmentors.com
January 2, 2025 at 10:27 PM
Reposted by Caitlin Ostroff
anthonydb.bsky.social
To support students, career-switchers and others who want to add SQL to their data analysis skillsets in 2025, I'm providing three free copies of my book, "Practical SQL." To enter a drawing for one of the free copies, please provide all the information below!

forms.gle/ge4ySHjHZbZp...
December 26, 2024 at 7:55 PM