Pedro da Costa, a Wall Street Journal reporter who covers the Federal Reserve and economics stories, was noticeably absent from Fed chairwoman Janet Yellen’s press conference on Wednesday after attending them for the past several years.
Da Costa posted on Twitter Wednesday afternoon that he wasn’t attending despite asking frequent questions at past news conferences about a potential leak at the Fed. Da Costa tweeted, “Fellow Fed reporters: Not attending today’s press conference but please don’t forget to press Yellen on handling of possibly-criminal leak.”
Later, Da Costa tweeted, “Yellen ends press conference. No questions on criminal investigation into Fed information breach.”
When New York Times Fed reporter Binyamin Applebaum later tweeted, “The absence of a leak question is a coordination failure. I suspect many of us would have asked if we knew no one else would,” da Costa replied, “It was an hour-long press conference.”
A Zero Hedge article implied that da Costa was not invited to the Wednesday news conference, but a Federal Reserve spokesman on Friday told Talking Biz News, “We invite each news organization to send one reporter to the Chair’s quarterly news conferences; the news organizations are responsible for choosing the reporter assigned.”
Well-known Journal Fed reporter Jon Hilsenrath was at the news conference. Da Costa has previously gone as the Dow Jones Newswires reporter. However, this time, Michael Derby, who also covers the Fed, represented Dow Jones. Neither asked a question about the leak.
A Dow Jones/Journal spokeswoman said Friday it did not “have anything to add” as to why da Costa did not attend. Da Costa declined comment when contacted by Talking Biz News.
A WSJ staffer familiar with the matter said da Costa was not invited to attend the press conference because of concerns about his performance. At no time did the Fed reach out to the Journal about da Costa’s previous questions or ask that he not be invited to this week’s FOMC presser, the staffer added.
