Yvette Kantrow of The Deal wants to know why Columbia Journalism Review‘s The Audit, which critiques the business press, took so long to recognize a critical article about Goldman Sachs in Rolling Stone.
“Still, nothing was forthcoming — a state of affairs that got stranger when an Audit piece on the Goldman Sachs code-theft case linked to two stories on the powers of ‘Government Sachs’ but made no mention of Taibbi’s blockbuster. Now, we understand that The Audit isn’t necessarily comprehensive. But we were also tempted to speculate that the silence may stem from the fact that Goldman is one of The Audit’s backers. In fact, reacting to the brouhaha over The Washington Post’s fundraising ‘salons,’ The Audit recently disclosed that it holds semiannual breakfasts for its funders and potential funders, including Goldman and Citigroup Inc.
“That could make it decidedly awkward for the site to deal with Taibbi’s takedown. It’s a tough situation. Praise Taibbi and piss off a funder; tear the story apart and look like its mouthpiece. Still, The Audit has not shied from criticizing Goldman in the past; it even got into a public spat with Goldman spokesman Lucas van Praag over its take on the firm’s role in the AIG bailout and how it benefited from it.
“Audit writer Ryan Chittum said his site’s silence had nothing to do with Goldman but everything to do with the fact that Rolling Stone was slow to put the entire Taibbi piece online.”
Read more here.
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Here's my response to Kantrow, http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/the_deals_audit_gotcha.php
and an excerpt:
Anyone who’s read half an Audit post would find it laughable to think that we bow down to Wall Street. But Yvette Kantrow, executive editor of a trade magazine called The Deal, isn’t laughing.
She’s written an innuendo-laden piece implying that The Audit (which would mean mostly me, since I write 90 percent of the posts) didn’t write about the recent Matt Taibbi piece on Goldman Sachs in Rolling Stone because we didn’t want to offend Goldman Sachs, which is one of the dozen or so funders of The Audit.
This is bogus, of course, but what’s worse is that Kantrow knows it. We understand why The Deal doesn’t like us. Fine. The problem here is that the facts undermine the premise of Kantrow’s column.
The truth is actually somewhat more mundane. Much as I’d love to tell you that Goldman Sachs’ terrible tentacles have tried to silence The Audit (and believe me, I’d be the first to tell you—loudly—as I quit CJR), the actual reason is I hadn’t even read Taibbi’s piece till earlier this week...
Personally I was unsure if Taibbi had the goods or was just ranting, so I went to the Audit and was surprised when you didn't write about it.
I don't think that you were influenced by your funding, but you have to admit the failure to write about this controversial Taibbi article does not look good.