Morgenson: Not my role to be part of PR spin

Gretchen Morgenson, who is leaving The New York Times for The Wall Street Journal, writes her last column for The Times and includes some responses she has received for skewering Wall Street.

Morgenson writes, “My search for truths on Wall Street and elsewhere over the years has sometimes raised hackles. That’s to the good. It wasn’t my job to be part of a company’s spin machine.

“But responses from my subjects could get a little kooky. A favorite example occurred in the early 2000s, and it involved a major Wall Street firm.

“I had written about an arbitration case that an investor client had brought against the firm. The firm prevailed in the matter, and the general counsel convened a dinner to celebrate.

“In a phone conversation, the firm’s general counsel told me that the menu for the dinner had featured a photograph of me, placed inside a red circle with a slash though it. The general counsel told me how he had scoured the web for just the right picture. The menu garnered lots of laughs from the attendees, he added.

“I never did find out what that celebration cost the firm’s shareholders.”

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