Professor: Bartiromo not representative of business journalism

Boston Herald business reporter Jesse Noyes takes a look at the Maria Bartiromo/Citigroup controversy on Saturday and quotes a Boston University professor who believes that Bartiromo is not the typical business journalist.

Noyes wrote, “If she’s the face of CNBC she should be held to a higher standard than anybody else,’ said John Carroll, a regular columnist on Greater Boston’s Beat the Press edition on WGBH-TV and a communications professor at Boston University. ‘They’ve created a lower standard for her.'”

Later, Noyes added, “But some media experts questioned whether Bartiromo’s role at CNBC blurs the line between news gathering and public relations.

“Could you imagine Walter Cronkite . . . being embroiled in such a controversy as this,’ said Sasha Norkin, a professor of broadcast journalism at Boston University. ‘(Bartiromo) is a reporter, but really she’s the face of CNBC and she’s out there doing PR for them.’

“And while CNBC is getting mired in controversy as the story snowballs, it’s unlikely Bartiromo’s image will be hurt, Carroll said.

“‘I don’t think (Bartiromo is) representative really of business journalism. I think she’s sort of representative of brand-name business journalism, and there are not many of them,’ he said.”

Read more here.