Categories: OLD Media Moves

Did Wells Fargo exec avoid CNBC reporter?

CNBC‘s Diana Olick wonders if a Wells Fargo & Co. executive avoided talking to her after she saw him talking to another reporter after telling her he couldn’t answer any questions.

Olick wrote, “That would have been fine, and I wouldn’t have written anything, save my perception of the events after that: while I was talking to another person at the event, I saw that same WF official speaking to a print reporter. I turned the camera back on him, and at that moment, a person with him took his arm and said we’ve got to go. I felt that he was standing with this other reporter far longer than he did with me, and that only when the camera light went on, did he get pulled away.

The folks at Wells Fargo say this is an unfair assessment, and I would like to give them their say. They say he was not giving an interview, was trying to be polite to get out of the situation quickly to make his appointment, and that I should not have painted the scene that he was running away from my camera. We disagree on the events, and there’s no way around that, but I think it’s important for readers to hear where Wells Fargo is coming from.

“I would still like to interview the president of Wells Fargo, especially given the new foreclosure numbers out today, but I realize there is now a trust issue on their side. While blogs offer background color and opinions of events, my reporting is fair, accurate and unbiased. Wells Fargo has every right to disagree with perceptions. I would like to talk about the issues.”

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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