WSJ keeps reporter on beat of billionaire who is suing her

Ryan Chittum of The Columbia Journalism Review writes Tuesday about how The Wall Street Journal has kept reporter Kate O’Keefe covering Sheldon Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands despite the fact that Adelson is suing her for libel for calling him a “a scrappy, foul-mouthed billionaire from working-class Dorchester, Mass.,” in a story.

Chittum writes, “The WSJ and O’Keeffe have had some good scoops on the serious federal corruption investigations into Las Vegas Sands—reporting Adelson presumably didn’t like.

“By keeping O’Keeffe on the beat, the Journal is telling Adelson (and future lawsuit-happy folks) that it won’t be bullied into soft-pedaling coverage and that it won’t let him control who covers him and his company. Reassigning O’Keeffe would have effectively let him do that.

“The Journal and O’Keeffe get the benefit of the doubt on their objectivity regarding Adelson and his casino company. She’s a pro, and everything has to go through editors anyway.

“The WSJ is doing exactly the right thing here.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.