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.

Recent Posts

Advocate seeks a business reporter in Baton Rouge

The Advocate is looking for a savvy reporter to cover the Baton Rouge business scene…

7 hours ago

MLex seeks a reporter in Washington

MLex, a LexisNexis company, is an independent news organization for breaking news and forward-looking analysis…

7 hours ago

Austin Biz Journal seeks an economic development reporter

The Austin Business Journal seeks a staff writer to cover economic development in one of…

7 hours ago

Forbes journalist in Russia placed under house arrest

A Russian court on Saturday placed Sergei Mingazov, a journalist for the Russian edition of…

7 hours ago

Investor’s Business Daily turns 40

Justin Nielsen of Investor's Business Daily writes about the newspaper's 40th anniversary. Nielsen writes, "When the…

7 hours ago

Fieseler to cover renewable energy, climate and tech for Politico/E&E News

Clare Fieseler has been hired by Politico and subsidiary E&E News to cover renewable energy,…

7 hours ago