WSJ releases statement about senior reporter Fassihi

This statement was released by The Wall Street Journal on Aug. 19. 2015: Recent allegations in some government-run Iranian media outlets that Wall Street Journal senior reporter Farnaz Fassihi was a link between the U.S. government and the opposition are completely false, outlandish and irresponsible. These allegations appear to be based on a Forbes opinion […]

Financial journalism “captured” by elite sources

A new study suggests financial journalism has been “captured” by a small coterie of elite sources. The study was conducted by Sophie Knowles from the University of the Arts London, Gail Phillips from Murdoch University and Johan Lidberg from Monash University. A summary of the study on The Conversation notes: To answer these questions, we conducted a comparative and longitudinal study of mainstream financial journalism […]

Executive fired after trying to obtain manuscript of book

A HubSpot executive has been fired for violating the company’s code of ethics after he tried to obtain a manuscript of a book about the company written by tech journalist Dan Lyons. A Boston Globe story states, “The Cambridge marketing firm has not publicly identified the writer whose manuscript Volpe allegedly tried to obtain, but […]

Trump criticizes Bloomberg’s coverage of his net worth

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump criticized Bloomberg News’ coverage that estimated his net worth at $2.9 billion, not the $10 billion figure he has used, reports David Martosko of The Daily Mail. Martosko reports, “‘I’m worth MUCH more than $10 billion,’ a confident Trump told DailyMail.com on Wednesday in his Manhattan office. “‘They did it […]

Biz reporter jobs and the threat from machines

Earnings season is here, along with two “threats” facing business journalists’ jobs. For those not in the biz, earnings season is the roughly three-week period when most of the S&P 500 companies reveal their quarterly results. For wire services and major business news outlets, it’s a massive shoveling exercise. Just to add sweat the exercise […]

Twitter being acquired story appears on fake Bloomberg site

A report claiming that Twitter Inc. received an offer to be acquired for $31 billion, attributed to Bloomberg LP, is fake, Twitter and a spokesman for the news and financial data provider said on Tuesday. Yasmeen Abutaleb of Reuters writes, “Twitter shares jumped on the report, which was distributed on the Internet and closely resembled […]

WSJ publishes Gingrich op-ed without disclosing he works for opponent

The Wall Street Journal published an op-ed by Newt Gingrich attacking the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and promoting the U.S. Consumer Coalition without disclosing that the anti-CFPB group employs him as a paid adviser, reports Eric Hananoki of Media Matters for America. Hananoki writes, “The coalition celebrated the placement of the op-ed on its website and stated that […]

Consuming finance news without being consumed

Wall Street Journal personal finance columnist Jason Zweig writes on his personal blog about how some readers become consumed with financial news, hurting their decision marking. Zweig writes, “It can’t be coincidence that online brokerage sites have prominently featured news feeds since the 1990s. The faster the news streams in and the closer the attention […]

CNBC updates story that was a hoax

CNBC.com updated Friday afternoon a story about a German man getting a divorce sawing his possessions in half with a note that it was a publicity stunt by a law firm. The original story was posted on its site on Thursday, June 18, at 6:52 p.m., with the title, “This man literally gave his ex […]

Hospitals ban newspaper in gift shops after coverage

Some UPMC hospitals are banning the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from sale in their gift shops, a move UPMC spokesman Paul Wood said was precipitated by “fairness issues” in the newspaper’s coverage of the health system. Steve Twedt of the Post-Gazette writes, “UPMC officials did not respond Tuesday to questions asking which specific stories they found objectionable. […]