TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE
Reuters editors last week killed a story by investigative reporter Matthew Goldstein about hedge fund trader Steven Cohen after Cohen complained to top Thomson Reuters executives that he was being persecuted by the news agency’s reporting, sources at Reuters said.
Goldstein’s story was based on documents, and was approved by Reuters lawyers. After Goldstein contacted Cohen for the pro forma no comment before the story ran, Cohen repeatedly called Devin Wenig, CEO of the Thomson Reuters markets division and the No. 2 executive at Thomson Reuters, to complain about the story.
Wenig passed on the complaints to Reuters Editor in Chief David Schlesinger, who asked editors to look into them. Reuters editors debated the story for three days before finally killing it.
A Reuters spokeswoman, when contacted by Talking Biz News, commented, “We make decisions on whether or not to run stories purely on journalistic grounds.”
The decision has hit morale at the news agency, where reporters had been encouraged by the formation of an enterprise team in recent months, the hiring of a former New York Times Sunday business editor Jim Impoco to head that effort, and Goldstein moving over from a columnist position to investigative reporting. Talking Biz News wrote about these efforts earlier this year.
The enterprise team also was allowing Reuters reporters to write longer analytical pieces which had been anathema at the news agency for years. In its first few months, the team had coordinated several hard-hitting pieces including one questioning the investment decisions of giant California pension fund Calpers, and a piece about China that caught the eye of the White House and led to an interview with President Obama.
“If Reuters wants to have credibility in enterprise reporting, its editors need to stand by reporters and resist pressure from people like Cohen,” said one Reuters insider.
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Information services agency that caters to business clients expands into reporting, and then caves into unhappy business customers who complain that the stories aren't nicey-nicey-- sadly, this isn't news. Trade editors deal with it all the time.
I'm not involved in this, but hang on just a second, Joey. Reuters hasn't expanded into reporting. It's been there for more than 150 years.
If Reuters backed down on this you really have to wonder how many other times Cohen has called media outlets and dictated their reportings? I think that Patrick Byrne called this sock puppetry where hedge funds ran the show under the byline of another.
SABEW and financial journalists everywhere should be angered by this as such a story cuts into the very reputation of your profession. It smells of pay to play with the appearance of a crook calling the shots here.
Robert, I believe Joey was referring to Thomson, not Reuters.
Who is more pathetic here: Stevie Cohen crying about how he is being “persecutedâ€, or Devin Wenig and David Schlesinger spinelessly caving in? How these men live with their cowardice escapes me.
Matt Goldstein is an awesome reporter. He should be backed to the wall.
When people start to realize how common this is in the financial media they are going to be shocked.
Investigative media outlet deepcapture.com does a good job of explaing it from what I have read.
It's a small step to cave into pressure about publishing an article about the fund to publishing articles about equities the fund is short or long. This is one initial step toward collusion.
“If Reuters wants to have credibility in enterprise reporting, its editors need to stand by reporters and resist pressure from people like Cohen,†said one Reuters insider.
WHAT HE/SHE SAID...
Reuters behaviour in this instance is deplorable. Goldstein is one of the most talented and respected financial journalists in the U.S.
What happened to free press?