False balance on Romney’s bogus welfare reform attack

He said-she said from the FT, and a weak showing from the WSJ

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 10, 2012 at 03:00 PM

This Financial Times coverage of Mitt Romney's false attack on an Obama administration move on welfare reform is a classic... More

Audit Notes: WSJ forgets climate change, Reuters results, Murdoch hides

A story on the record heat wave omits global warming

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 10, 2012 at 01:24 AM

The Wall Street Journal writes 640 words on how last month was the hottest July on record—and fails to mention... More

The New York Times prepares to leave the content farm

The sale of About.com would leave a pure-play newspaper company

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 9, 2012 at 06:50 AM

The New York Times Company looks set to exit the content-farm business, with AllThingsD's Peter Kafka reporting that the company... More

A welcome spotlight on trade deals

Reuters’s Johnston goes to Korea to look at the prospects of a new agreement

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 8, 2012 at 11:00 AM

In March, the Obama administration implemented a trade agreement with South Korea that it promised, implausibly, would create tens of... More

Audit Notes: Auditor conflicts, Frannie holdup, London Whale pressured

The latest money-laundering scandal points to problems with a business model

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 8, 2012 at 01:11 AM

Francine McKenna looks at Deloitte's role in the latest money-laundering scandal and how it points to conflicts of interest in... More

Audit Notes: Singing on Libor, another bank scandal, Star Tribune

The NYT on how banks are turning each other in

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 7, 2012 at 06:50 AM

The New York Times, in a good page-one story, reports that giant banks are selling each other out trying to... More

Required skimming: Libor

Understand and keep up to speed with England’s bank rate rigging scandal

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 6, 2012 at 06:50 AM

This month, CJR presents “Required Skimming,” a daily miniguide to our staffers’ beats and obsessions, ranging from finance to food.... More

Audit Notes: California’s Enron echoes, Sox toolbox, the Dow’s decade

LAT on allegations that JPMorgan manipulated markets

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 5, 2012 at 06:50 AM

— Michael Hiltzik had a good column two weeks ago on allegations that JPMorgan Chase manipulated California energy markets: The... More

The Washington Post’s not-so-good earnings report

The paper puts a positive spin on another poor quarter

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 3, 2012 at 03:39 PM

Here's how the Washington Post covers its namesake parent company's dismal second-quarter earnings report: Washington Post Co. second-quarter profit up... More

Audit Notes: Taibbi on TBTF, the paranoid rich, Olympics

An NYT op-ed elides some critical context

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 2, 2012 at 06:50 AM

It's unclear why The New York Times is running op-eds on finance from a guy who is still operating under... More

The Times airbrushes Tiger Fund’s flop

A needlessly flattering hedge fund profile omits the basics

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 1, 2012 at 11:10 AM

The New York Times posts a flacktacular Business Day piece on a new hedge fund named Falcon Edge. This new... More

Audit Notes: News Corp.’s board, Romney’s taxes, NBC’s Olympics

The paper reports prosecutors are examining whether to charge Murdoch’s directors

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 1, 2012 at 06:50 AM

The Guardian's Nick Davis, with David Leigh, has another stunner on the hacking scandal. They report that Britain's Crown... More

Audit Notes: Twitter’s censors, NYT apology, Craigslist’s aggregators

By Ryan Chittum   Jul 31, 2012 at 06:50 AM

Twitter gave itself a serious black eye today, censoring a journalist for reporting the easy-to-figure-out corporate email address of NBC... More

When a news executive sits on a bank’s board

The FT Group’s Fairhead is a director of troubled HSBC

By Ryan Chittum   Jul 23, 2012 at 11:00 AM

It’s unusual—rare, even—for the CEO of a major financial news and information concern to serve on the board of directors... More

The WSJ on the fall of Nokia

The company that foresaw an iPhone-like device in 2000 is left in the dust

By Ryan Chittum   Jul 20, 2012 at 07:26 PM

The Wall Street Journal has an excellent page-one story on the fall of Finnish cellphone giant Nokia—the kind of deeply... More

Audit Notes: Bloomberg on Libor, “can’t find workers” in the WSJ

At least 34 traders are under investigation in the widening scandal

By Ryan Chittum   Jul 20, 2012 at 12:57 AM

Bloomberg names names in the Libor investigation, reporting that at least 34 traders from more than a dozen banks are... More

Audit Notes: Ignoring Libor, Barron’s, rich kids and TV news

ABC and NBC evening newscasts ignore the huge scandal in its first two weeks

By Ryan Chittum   Jul 19, 2012 at 06:50 AM

The Washington Post's Erik Wemple points to Media Matters research that shows ABC's and NBC's nightly newscasts completely ignored the... More

More on NPR and manufactured quotes

Why lobbyist-provided rent-a-quotes subvert the news

By Ryan Chittum   Jul 18, 2012 at 04:38 PM

NPR Ombudsman Edward Schumacher-Matos (who teaches here at Columbia) takes a look at the network's poor showing with manufacturing sources... More

Audit Notes: Too big to fail football, Guardian digital numbers, WaPo

Penn State and the ramifications of a possible NCAA death penalty

By Ryan Chittum   Jul 18, 2012 at 06:50 AM

It's not just the banks. Now elite college football programs are too big to fail, as well. Here's Bloomberg News... More

The WSJ Editorial Page and the Libor scandal

Blaming everybody but the bankers

By Ryan Chittum   Jul 17, 2012 at 11:00 AM

When wrongdoing by Big Business is in the news, you can usually count on the WSJ editorial page to do... More