Wall Street reporters who accept fees from Wall Street

Paul Starobin writes in the March/April issue of Columbia Journalism Review about how some business journalists — he names Gillian Tett, Michael Lewis, Martin Wolf and Niall Ferguson among the defenders — accept fees to speak at events run by Wall Street firms.

Starobin writes, “Many journalists give paid speeches to businesses and business groups. And Wall Street, as it happens, is probably the top source of such engagements. Household names such as Bank of America as well as obscure hedge funds, private-equity firms, and others in the financial world frequently hire journalists — including scribes who regularly cover Wall Street — to deliver speeches at events ranging from publicized conferences to small private dinners with select clients. Millions of dollars have flowed to journalists in speaking fees in recent years.

“Is this a scandal, a dark and indelible stain on journalism, or really not such a big deal? What does Wall Street, which is all about the bottom line, after all, get from such engagements? Is this a matter of journalism ethics? Not surprisingly, what may at first seem a simple judgment call turns out to be a bit more complicated.

“Even though the practice of journalists speaking for money is not a new one, these questions are especially ripe for exploration because of the enormous importance of Wall Street as a political and economic story for the press. The US economy is still suffering from the 2008 financial crisis, and Wall Street, saved by a controversial federal bailout of some $1 trillion, is emerging as a core issue in the 2012 presidential campaign — especially with the prospect that the Republican nominee will be Mitt Romney, a former private-equity baron.

“The public needs to trust the press to get the story straight, all the more so because of pervasive distrust of Wall Street itself.”

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