Categories: OLD Media Moves

If only we were all this lucky

Katherine Eban of Conde Nast Portfolio writes that New York Times business reporter Alex Berenson had a scoop literally land in his e-mail inbox when an attorney working for Eli Lilly & Co. sent him confidential information about a settlement instead of to another attorney — who happens to have the same last name.

Eban wrote, “So when the Times‘ Berenson began calling around for comment, and seemed to possess remarkably detailed inside information about the negotiations, Lilly executives were certain the source of the leak was the government.   
 
“As it turned out, one of Eli Lilly’s lawyers at Pepper Hamilton in Philadelphia wanted to email Sidley Austin’s Berenson, about the negotiations. But apparently, the name that popped up from her email correspondents was the wrong Berenson.
 
“Alex Berenson logged on to find an internal ‘very comprehensive document’ about the negotiations, the consultant said, and on January 30, Berenson’s article, “Lilly in Settlement Talks With U.S.” appeared on the Times‘ website. A similar article followed the next day on the front page of the New York Times.”

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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