The Journal Excels on BP

An investigation shows the company repeatedly cutting corners in the Gulf

By Ryan Chittum   May 27, 2010 at 12:33 PM

The Wall Street Journal unloads a huge, devastating investigation into the BP oil catastrophe this morning, finding that the company... More

Audit Notes: Corporate Welfare for BP, (Financial) Markets First, Facebook

By Ryan Chittum   May 26, 2010 at 07:25 PM

The Los Angeles Times has a terrific story pointing out that Washington larded up the oil companies with tax breaks... More

WSJ Again Pulls Back the Curtains on Window Dressing

By Ryan Chittum   May 26, 2010 at 06:53 PM

The Wall Street Journal continues its excellent work on the Wall Street "window dressing" story, which it broke early last... More

More on Hyped Atlantic Headlines

“Did Christianity Cause the Crash?” was a low point for the magazine

By Ryan Chittum   May 26, 2010 at 05:21 PM

Mollie brings up a great point in comments on my earlier post on sensational, misleading headlines at the Atlantic. She... More

The Financial Industry’s Threadbare Astroturf

By Ryan Chittum   May 26, 2010 at 10:37 AM

Mike Konczal reports on a scrambled-together lobbying effort by the banks along with Visa and Mastercard to defeat the interchange-fee... More

Sorry, Porn Didn’t Cause TK Regulatory Failure

A misleading Atlantic headline and a misdirection on what’s wrong with oversight

By Ryan Chittum   May 26, 2010 at 09:53 AM

Here's an example of one of the all-time most-annoying Web journalism tricks. Daniel Indiviglio at The Atlantic's site has this... More

Audit Notes: Blankfein and Barber, Another BP OIl Spill, Box Offices and Onions

By Ryan Chittum   May 25, 2010 at 11:13 PM

Wall Street Journal deputy managing editor Alan Murray has a good question on Twitter for the Financial Times: So the... More

WSJ.com Lacks Link Luster

But there are lots of reasons for that

By Ryan Chittum   May 25, 2010 at 05:43 PM

Jeff Bercovici and Felix Salmon point to a Project for Excellence in Journalism study for a cautionary tale on paywalls... More

Small Banks Did Not Perform Worst in This Crisis

It would take 3,800 Georgia bank failures to equal one Bank of America

By Ryan Chittum   May 25, 2010 at 01:23 PM

The Atlantic's Derek Thompson quotes a friend in finance saying: "Small banks did the worst in this crisis," he once... More

Audit Notes: Hardly a Nick, European Fallout, Shopping for Ratings

By Ryan Chittum   May 24, 2010 at 06:25 PM

I wrote this morning that the financial-reform bill is like taking a firebug's matches away and leaving him with his... More

Bloomberg Investigates a “Double Irish” Corporate Tax Scheme

By Ryan Chittum   May 24, 2010 at 04:31 PM

A tip of The Audit's cap to Bloomberg, which had an excellent investigation last week on a big way corporations... More

The Times on What Financial Reform Really Means

By Ryan Chittum   May 24, 2010 at 12:07 PM

Binyamin Appelbaum of The New York Times has the smartest take I've seen yet on what the impending passage of... More

Audit Notes: Pretty Pensions, Private Equity Walks, Payday Lenders Skate

By Ryan Chittum   May 21, 2010 at 07:17 PM

Kudos to the Times’s Mary Williams Walsh and Amy Schoenfeld for a corker of an exposé on six-figure pensions larding... More

Mostly Muddled Coverage of the Housing Market

By Ryan Chittum   May 21, 2010 at 05:50 PM

How optimistic should we be about the housing market? After reading press coverage of April's mortgage stats, you'd be forgiven... More

The Journal Reveals Another Facebook Privacy Gaffe

By Ryan Chittum   May 21, 2010 at 11:30 AM

The Wall Street Journal gets a nice Facebook/MySpace privacy scoop this morning, reporting that the sites—particularly Facebook—send along personal-identification information... More

Audit Notes: A-hed Hed, Deflation, BW or BBW?

By Ryan Chittum   May 20, 2010 at 07:42 PM

Headline of the Week goes to The Wall Street Journal for this A-hed: In England, Buying the Farm Can Be... More

All the Banks in Georgia

Small-bank failures are child’s play in a too-big-to-fail world

By Ryan Chittum   May 20, 2010 at 01:46 PM

It's a good idea to point out that small banks are failing, too. This is hardly a news flash, but... More

Audit Notes: Not-So-Goldman Advice, One Source Stories, Facebook

By Ryan Chittum   May 19, 2010 at 09:43 PM

Bloomberg reports that even though Goldman Sachs, along with other banks, won on every day at the dog tracks last... More

Tribune Investigation Finds Mercury-Laced Skin Creams

By Ryan Chittum   May 19, 2010 at 09:07 PM

A terrific investigation today by the Chicago Tribune discovered high levels of mercury in skin-whitening creams on shelves across Chicago.... More

The New York Times’s Devastating Goldman Piece

Morgenson and Story unload on the bank’s conflicted business model

By Ryan Chittum   May 19, 2010 at 11:18 AM

The New York Times goes long on the conflict machine that is Goldman Sachs. It's a devastating synthesis of what's... More