Categories: OLD Media Moves

Company complains reporter only uses 5 percent of its responses

Privately held Koch Industries is contesting the accuracy of a Rolling Stone article about its pollution record, but the journalist who wrote the article is standing by its content, reports Daniel McCoy of the Wichita Business Journal.

McCoy writes, “Koch’s take going in was that the article would be slanted, which the company concluded turned out to be the case.

“‘Any pretense at objectivity is belied by Mr. Dickinson’s efforts to hype his article on social media with hyperbole like, ‘From toxic pollution to toxic assets — everything you need to know about how the Koch brothers got so rich,'” Koch’s response reads.

“The company says Dickinson used less five percent of the 3,200-words worth of answers and information it provided the author in response to his questions.

“Dickinson contends the information was used to inform his writing but most of the responses covered no new ground.

“The author also says he attempted to ‘engage Koch Industries in a robust discussion of the issues raised in our reporting,’ but ultimately was left with only on-the-record email responses from Koch’s general counsel Mark Holden.”

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.

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