Utah biz media ignoring Overstock’s issues

Financial journalist Gary Weiss writes that the business media in Utah are ignoring the financial problems of Overstock.com, which is about to default on its loan covenants.

Weiss writes, “One thing I find especially interesting is the utter indifference to all this by the local Utah newspapers, especially the Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News and the local Associated Press bureau, which seem to view their role as that of extensions of Overstock’s public relations department. Not a word has appeared in the local newspapers about the company’s third-quarter financial woes, the libel suit against its CEO Patrick Byrne, or the downgrade that led to a sell-off in the stock on Friday.

“In the unlikely event that word ekes out into the press on any of this, or the default threat, you can be sure that it will be written with an overt pro-Overstock bias.

“In other words, one of the largest and most interesting companies in Utah just isn’t covered at all, except when it issues a press release. If that isn’t a ‘captured media,’ to use one of Byrne’s favorite phrases, I don’t know what is.”

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