Business media misfires on drug company takeover

TheStreet.com’s Marek Fuchs criticizes the business media for reporting that French drug company Sanofi-Aventis and Bristol-Myers Squibb were going to merge and create the world’s largest drug company based on an unsourced French newsletter report.

Fuchs wrote, “That some newsletter somewhere specializes in thin reporting is neither a great surprise nor a business-world tragedy — but it is the way the business media operate, so uncritical in thought, so in need of copy and so willing to pawn responsibility for a mistake on whoever originally said something (‘I was just quoting them,’ is the dog-ate-the-homework excuse).

“The real problem, as I pointed out, came when Reuters ran with the story.

“Reuters mentioned in the second sentence of its piece that the information was unsourced. But to my flawless way of thinking, that should be less a qualifier than a disqualifier. Cagey Reuters even gave itself a little cover with use of the passive voice, saying the premerger deal was ‘thought to have been signed last week.’

“The Business Press Maven added that for all he knew (which was nothing), a merger agreement could have been signed last week but that Reuters was being irresponsible in reporting it, even if at what it believed to be a safe distance. I know how these things play out for investors: An unsourced mention may be first reported as such, but with the news cycle turning so quickly and making news outlets fear being second more than being wrong, the rumor is soon reported as basic fact.”

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