Biz journalists continue to write about Wall Street CEOs as heroes

TheStreet.com media critic Marek Fuchs writes Friday that he’s disgusted with the terminology that is continually being used by business journalists to describe Wall Street executives.

Exhibit A is Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain. Fuchs writes, “Yet he emerges from the wreckage of Mother Merrill still a hero. He was appointed to a prominent post at Bank of America, which took over Merrill, and the default assumption was that he would soon take over the combined entity.

“Look at this bit from the The Wall Street Journal: ‘The highly regarded Mr. Thain, 53, might well be that person, observers said. ‘There is really nobody else around,’ one analyst said.’

“‘That person’ refers to the leader of the combined firm. ‘Highly regarded’ means, uh, highly regarded. And that’s not a word I would use for Thain or any other Wall Street executive right now. And ‘nobody else around’? Please. Don’t make me gag.”

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