Wall Street Journal senior editor Mike Siconolfi responded to a hedge fund manager David Einhorn’s letter to his investors criticizing a recent article about hedge funds, and the Dealbreaker site that posted his comments by slamming both.
Jessica Pressler of New York magazine writes that Siconolfi responded, “Mr. Einhorn’s complaints, made two months after the fact, are baseless. The story was thorough and accurate, and we’re mystified by his protestations that the Journal has ignored his complaints about errors in the article. We take matters of accuracy very seriously, and neither Mr. Einhorn nor his spokesperson has approached the reporter or me regarding any alleged errors, nor have they contacted the office of the managing editor with any complaints.”
Later, Siconolfi said, “At the Journal, we practice what we call no-surprises journalism. Mr. Einhorn was told before the publication of the article everything that we would say about him, and he was given ample time to comment on what we would be reporting. He chose not to discuss any aspect with us. While we would have been happy to share Mr. Einhorn’s comments with readers of the article, his lack of participation wouldn’t and didn’t stop us from publishing the facts that we knew to be true.”
As for Dealbreaker, Siconolfi responded, “Meantime, it’s clear that dealbreaker.com operates under a much different set of journalistic standards. The web site’s employee Bess Levin at no time sought out either the reporter or me for comment before this was published. Had she done so, we would have corrected her misleading assertions. The language in the headline and story is not only factually inaccurate, but personally and professionally offensive. I can assure you, Ms. Levin and Mr. Einhorn, that the Journal is proud of our reporting on this article and the way in which we practice journalism.”
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