The problem with “CEO says” journalism

The Fine Print founder and publisher Karl Bode writes about the problem with journalism that focuses on what CEOs say.

Bode writes, “There are some outlets that are obviously worse than others (Business Insider, Fortune, Forbes), but you’ll find it’s generally a very broad scourge across journalism; especially tech and business journalism. Here, for example, is a whole bunch of outlets parroting Musk’s recent claim he’d help pay TSA agent salaries:

None of these outlets could be bothered to even mention Musk’s extensive history of erratic behavior or making false promises, like the time he falsely claimed he’d ship hospitals ventilators during peak COVID, the time he claimed he’d single-handedly fixed Flint, Michigan’s water supply, or more recently when he claimed he’d cut $2 trillion in wasteful government spending.

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.