Critic: Lehman media coverage sloppy

TheStreet.com media critic Marek Fuchs writes Monday about the coverage of Lehman Brothers fall from grace and finds it riddled with errors.

Fuchs writes, “Though The Business Press Maven can normally dwell on other people’s mistakes forever, I’ll limit myself to four mistakes of either fact or theme:

“CNNMoney went with this dumbbell of a lead:

‘After enduring one of the most dramatic days in its history, Wall Street received a climactic jolt on Monday when Lehman Brothers, a 158-year-old investment bank undermined by bad bets on real estate, said it will file for bankruptcy.’

“Climactic jolt? Never mind the imagery, how many times are we going to have to put up with the business media declaring a bottom, a dramatic turning point, a climax for the financials. Even as Lehman topples, we have AIG teetering. If Lehman’s meltdown was a ‘climactic jolt,’ what might AIG be later in the week? My imagination fails me.

“The New York Times plain flubbed the definition of a long-short fund here:

‘His is a so-called long-short fund, which means he invests $2 buying shares in companies for every $1 he places shorting other companies.’

Read more here.