CNBC editor Deogun: Let’s stick to the facts

Nike Deogun

CNBC editor in chief Nik Deogun encouraged those in the media to stick to the facts and acknowledge when they don’t know something because readers “are not as ignorant, as stupid as we think they are” at The Aspen Ideas Festival.

Tré Goins-Phillips of The Blaze writes, “In his response, Deogun warned against holding different people to different standards in reporting — a reality he called a ‘trap’ in today’s political climate. Ultimately, he said the goal for the press corps should be to just ‘stick to the facts.’

“‘I think sometimes there’s too much of a tendency to interpret a fact to a degree that it goes into opinion,’ Deogun said. ‘And I think part of our job is to — again — remind ourselves that our … readers, viewers, users, are not as ignorant, as stupid as we think they are.

“‘I think part of that is to be more transparent,’ he continued. ‘Part of that is to be more forthcoming about what we know and what we don’t know.'”

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.