Weiss questions WSJ editor's claim that it didn't know about Madoff tip

Conde Nast Portfolio contributing editor Gary Weiss finds it hard to believe that former Wall Street Journal managing editor Paul Steiger or anyone at the paper was unaware that a whistle blower was trying to tip them off to the fraud occurring by money manager Bernie Madoff.

Steiger, in an interview with Editor & Publisher on Thursday, said he highly doubts any editors at the paper knew about any pursuit of the Madoff story by one of the paper’s reporters.

Weiss writes, “Excuse me? Is he saying that Markopolos did not approach the Journal, that his testimony is false?

“Anyway, as recounted by Linkins, who based his account on the voluminous supporting documentation released by Markopolos, the whistleblower struggled throughout 2006 to get the Journal’s attention, and actually kept the faith through 2007. I repeat: 2007! The man’s patience was extraordinary.”

Later, Weiss adds, “Since the Journal is unlikely to ever explain itself, I’ll try to offer my guess as to what why a top investigative reporter and his editors dropped the ball so terribly:

“They didn’t believe Markopolos.

“It’s that simple. I can’t think of any other possible explanation, and I don’t think that any other one has any chance of being credible.”

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