TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE
Reuters editor in chief David Schlesinger held his regular, quarterly staff conference call on Wednesday, and the questions he got from reporters and editors today primarily focused on the wire service’s decision to kill a story last month about hedge fund operator Steven Cohen, according to those on the call who confirmed its existance and the discussion to Talking Biz News.
It was a lively call with several questions from reporters about what happened. Schlesinger addressed the issue in his opening remarks, before the questions, describing blog postings about the incident as false. Staff writer Robert MacMillan, who blogs about the media, was the first to ask questions about the issue, according to others on the call.
Schlesinger again defended the decision. He said that he merely raised questions to global company news editor Jack Reerink and left it to Reerink to take the decision.Â
Schlesinger said on the call that there was no influence exerted by Thomson Reuters executive Devin Wenig and that the decision was made on editorial grounds.
Schlesinger did not reply to an e-mail seeking comment, and MacMillan declined to comment about what he asked or any other part of the call. (UPDATE: Schlesinger e-mailed late Wednesday night to say, “I said what I wanted to say in the memo you’ve seen. This was a chance to say it verbally.”)
Asked whether he meant it was a bad story, Schlesinger praised Goldstein as one of Reuters’ most talented reporters and said: “The story could have run… it wasn’t a bad story… there was nothing wrong with the reporting,” according to one staff member who listened to the call. But in the judgment of the editors, according to one staff member, Schlesinger said, “It wasn’t ready for prime time.”
Schlesinger did not go into the details of what the story said or why it was not judged appropriate to run it.
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Clearly Reuters and Schlesinger feel they have no responsibility to be accountable for their actions. being held accountable is something Reuters expects those they write about to be but not the other way around.
What appalls me is that the business media has taken no interest in this. It is a non-story when a large hedge fund gets a negative story about him killed. I guess the business media has givenup up their freedom of the press and thus subpoenas and arrests of the media are fair game again. There is a link to SEC subpoena's on teh right, isn't it funny how the media came out of the woodwork to protect these writers when the evidence of this story points to exactly that type activity taking place.
Maybe the business media would hold higher credibility if they demonstrated higher ethical (and impartial) character.
Hmm...If there was nothing wrong with the reporting AND story was written by one of Reuters' "most talented reporters" what the hell does "it wasn't ready for prime time" mean and why didn't Schlesinger or Reerink or another editor over there tell the reporter what it needed to be ready for prime time? (Or maybe even use their editing talents to make it ready?)
The story was fine, reporting-wise, but 'it wasn't ready for prime time" ??? So how about fixing it and running it? Where is the editorial courage here?
Reuters? Ain't that the joint where ex-BusinessWeek editor Steve Adler ended up after a stellar performance running a storied magazine into the ground?
They sure know talent at reuters -- and quality journalism, apparently -- at Reuters, eh?