Categories: OLD Media Moves

Stanford coverage a bit misleading

Ryan Chittum of Columbia Journalism Review writes that the business media coverage of the Stanford Financial case has been somewhat misleading in describing the size of the alleged fraud.

Chittum writes, “The Journal, the Times, and the Washington Post call it an ‘$8 Billion Fraud’ in their headlines, and the Journal calls it that in its story, as well (the Times and Post do not). The Financial Times and Bloomberg don’t put a number on the fraud, making clear it’s an ‘alleged fraud’ involving ‘selling about $8 billion in certificates.’

“Sure, it’s not technically wrong. Stanford is alleged to have sold $8 billion worth of certificates of deposit by misleading investors. But the ‘$8 billion fraud’ phrase implies that all or most of the money has disappeared, which as far as I can tell isn’t the case. (UPDATE: Felix Salmon makes a great case for why most of it has likely disappeared.)

“The Stanford case is just bizarre. How could a firm not raise suspicions much earlier than it did when it was promising returns on CDs that doubled the average? And it was run in part out of Antigua.

“The SEC has been caught snoozing again and is scrambling to look tough. Check out this Reuters video of agents raiding Stanford. Talk about made for TV. You can practically hear a producer standing off camera, yelling ‘aaaand ACTION!'”

Read more here.

Recent Posts

Indianapolis Biz Journal seeks a news editor

The Indianapolis Business Journal is looking for our next news editor, a role that focuses…

12 hours ago

Axios hires Berkowitz as ME for media and markets coverage

Axios has chosen Ben Berkowitz to be its next managing editor of business and markets.…

16 hours ago

Business Insider hires Ortega as director of newsroom operations

Business Insider editor in chief Jamie Heller sent out the following on Monday: I'm thrilled…

17 hours ago

Rest of World promotes Chandran to deputy editor

Rest of World editor in chief Anup Kaphle sent out the following on Monday: We are excited…

17 hours ago

FT hires Venugopal as India newsletter editor

The Financial Times has hired Veena Venugopal as its India newsletter editor. She has been working at…

18 hours ago

FT taps Parkin to be Middle East and Africa news editor

Benjamin Parkin has been named Middle East and Africa news editor at the Financial Times, based…

21 hours ago