The biz story the NYT ignored

James Ledbetter of The Big Money writes that The New York Times has ignored a story about Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, who happens to own a chunk of the Times parent company, that the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg covered.

Ledbetter writes, “According to the account in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal, the way that the proposed transfer of a $225 million loan was structured would have effectively required Grupo Televisa’s Cablevision division to hand over to its competitor information including its ‘budgets, tallies of capital investments, strategic plans, contract terms for its subscribers and plans for improvements at its growing digital network in Mexico City.’

“That seems like a pretty bad way for J.P. Morgan to treat its client of 20-plus years. Not surprisingly, Cablevision has sued J.P. Morgan, and Rakoff’s ruling for now means that the loan can’t be transferred; further hearings will take place later this year.

“This is a scandalous story, involving one of the world’s largest banks, a powerful federal judge, and two Mexican telecom giants. Under any other circumstances, the business section of the Times would be expected to cover it, as the Journal and Bloomberg have. Yet as of Saturday midday, I cannot find a single mention of any aspect of this case, anywhere in the physical New York Times, or on its Web site–not even a blog post or a wire story. Perhaps as the lawsuit moves on, the Times will be compelled to cover it. But for the moment, it certainly appears that Carlos Slim’s investment has bought the silence of one of the world’s most important newspapers.”

Read more here.