Biz media lack perspective in reporting on Costco

TheStreet.com media critic Marek Fuchs writes that most of the business media, when writing about Costco’s recent earnings, forgot to mention that the company warned in July that its earnings would be lower than forecasted.

Fuchs writes, “Here’s a Reuters headline, quite positive: ‘Costco profit up 7 percent.’

“And a Reuter’s lead, equally positive: ‘Costco Wholesale Corp reported a higher quarterly profit on Wednesday as price-conscious shoppers headed to the discount retailer’s warehouse locations for bargains on food and gasoline.’

“In its original version, the article made no mention of July. It’s been updated since, with a couple of paragraphs about July near the end, but the damage has already been done. The July mention is necessary to put near-terms trends in Costco’s business into perspective — and is there anything more needed in today’s consumer environment than perspective?

“Does anyone remember perspective?”

Read more here. Fuchs notes that Dow Jones Newswires made proper mention of the earnings warning.