When an ex-Ford exec closed speech to the media

Chuck Jaffe of Marketwatch.com writes about what happened when former Ford Motor Co. CEO Alan Mulally closed a speech to the mainstream media.

Jaffe writes, “I’m sure critics will say I’m simply upset at being excluded from a speech.

“Nothing could be further from the truth. While I am a former president of the Society of American Business Editors & Writers and believe that sunshine — media access whenever practical — is the best disinfectant and the greatest equalizer for the investment world, I expected Mulally to give just another boring speech from some corporate guy.

“In fact, if Mulally would have talked to me about why he closed the speech to the media, I would have thanked him for saving me from having to sit through it.

“The issue, however, is that Mulally closed the event to ‘the media,’ but apparently had no plans to close his talk to all media.

“In today’s world, pretty much everyone has the potential to be ‘the media.’

“Virtually everyone allowed to attend that speech has a cell phone and can tweet, Instagram and otherwise social-media the talk to death. Financial advisers who blog, write for news sites — and who have vested interests that the traditional news media don’t have in covering specific stocks and the markets — are allowed to attend, and haven’t agreed to keep the session off-the-record.”

Read more here.