Chinese ownership raises editorial independence questions at Forbes
Since a Hong Kong-based investment group purchased a majority stake in Forbes, there have been several instances of editorial meddling on stories involving China that raise questions about the magazine’s commitment to editorial independence, writes Isaac Stone Fish of The Washington Post. Fish writes, “On Oct. 9, longtime China commentator and Communist Party critic Gordon […]
WSJ defends coverage of Dallas-based money manager
The Wall Street Journal defended its coverage of Highland Capital Management after the money manager accused one of its reporters for writing biased and unfair stories. The Dallas-based firm, which has $14 billion in assets under management, complained after a Nov. 27 story written by reporter Matt Wirz. In a letter posted on its website, Highland […]
How positive references to products and companies end up in stories
Jon Christian of The Outline reports about how writers for business publications such as Fast Company and Business Insider have received money in exchange for positive references to companies or products. Christian writes, “People involved with the payoffs are extremely reluctant to discuss them, but four contributing writers to prominent publications including Mashable, Inc, Business […]
No black women panelists at Business Insider’s flagship conference in eight years
Yashar Ali of The Huffington Post writes that there have been no black women among the 683 invited panelists at Business Insider’s main conference “Ignition” in the past eight years. Ali writes, “In the eight years that the conference has been held, it has featured 683 panelists. That group does not include a single black […]
Mediate sues The Wrap over hiring of Levine
Mediaite has filed a lawsuit against entertainment news site The Wrap over the hiring of media reporter Jon Levine despite his noncompete agreement. Eriq Gardner of The Hollywood Reporter writes, “According to the complaint, Levine began working at Mediaite this past February as an at-will employee. That allegedly changed in July, when in exchange for an eight percent […]
How the WSJ fought a court order in India to publish a story
Neal Lipschutz, editor of ethics and standards at The Wall Street Journal, talks about how the paper fought a court order in 2015 barring the Journal from running a story about the controversial arrest of a stock analyst in India. After Geeta Anand, a reporter in the paper’s Mumbai bureau, sent a list of questions […]
How one business journalist handled sexual harassment
Shaheen Pasha, a University of Massachusetts journalism professor, writes about how she was sexually harassed when she worked as a business journalist for CNNMoney, Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. Pasha writes, “When I started my career in New York as a financial journalist in the early 2000s, I was often one of […]
Private investigator posed as WSJ reporter
Nick Kostov of The Wall Street Journal writes about how Jean-Charles Brisard, a well-known corporate security and intelligence consultant who lives in Switzerland and France, posed as Journal reporter William Horobin in a meeting with a hedge fund. Kostov reports, “Mr. Brisard declined to comment on whether he was involved in the email correspondence. Google […]
Unhappy with coverage of its biz dealings, Disney bans LA Times from movie previews
Walt Disney Co. has prevented Los Angeles Times entertainment reporters from reviewing its holiday movies because it is not happy with the paper’s coverage of its business dealings with the city of Anaheim. Erik Wemple of the Washington Post reports, “The Los Angeles Times has just published its 2017 Holiday Movie Preview. Prominently featured is […]
Tech news sites quietly use this word too much
Tim Ellis of Geekwire writes about how tech news sites use the word “quietly” in headlines and stories to excess, often creating drama when it’s not needed. Ellis writes, “Apparently whenever a tech company does anything without publishing a press release and running ads during Monday Night Football, tech news sites have decided that the […]
