Business news that's fit to print

Andrew Ross Sorkin of The New York Times was answering questions from readers this past week, including this one about when business journalists decide ro go with information.

Q. How do you know the difference between what’s “fit to print” and what is confidential or inside information? Is there a line in the sand? Do you legitimize rumors and deliberately placed trial balloons by printing them?

A. Thanks for your question, Larry. We spend an enormous amount of time reporting, speaking to multiple sources and then cross-checking that information again, in order to make sure that we’re only printing news that’s “fit to print.” As you can imagine, there are lots of people with agendas who want to spin the story or, as you said, to float trial balloons. Our job is to cut through the clutter to determine the facts and make sure the reader gets the most accurate information.

When there are different perspectives on what the facts mean, we try to tell readers about those different perspectives. We also endeavor to explain where a source is coming from — that is, how the source stands to benefit from telling us something or from taking the position that he or she is taking.

As to your question about publishing confidential or inside information, we regularly seek news and other details about events that have not been publicly disclosed. In that sense, we are trying to bring more, not less, transparency to the marketplace and the markets.

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