First column by new Reuters tax columnist was wrong

David Cay Johnston, the former Pulitzer Prize winner at the New York Times who joined Reuters to write a weekly tax column, has corrected his first column about News Corp.’s taxes.

Johnston writes, “Readers, I apologize. The premise of my debut column for Reuters, on News Corp’s taxes, was wrong, 100 percent dead wrong.

“Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp did not get a $4.8 billion tax refund for the past four years, as I reported. Instead, it paid that much in cash for corporate income taxes for the years 2007 through 2010 while earning pre-tax profits of $10.4 billion.

“For the first time in my 45-year-old career I am writing a skinback. That is what journalists call a retraction of the premise of a piece, as in peeling back your skin and feeling the pain. I will do all I can to make sure everyone who has read or heard secondary reports based on my column also learns the facts and would appreciate the help of readers in that cause.

“No excuses. But I will explain how I made such a bonehead error.”

Read more here.