The Audit

The Hole In FON Theory

Continuing the discussion about the future of news with Clay Shirky

By Dean Starkman   Dec 21, 2011 at 11:00 AM

I thank Clay Shirky and other posters for their responses to “Confidence Game: the limited vision of the news... More

Audit Notes: Nocera on Frannie, The Fed’s Politics, Confidence Game

By Ryan Chittum   Dec 20, 2011 at 11:45 PM

Joe Nocera writes that the SEC's case against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac executives is "extraordinarily weak," relying on the... More

On the Record From Inside a Gilded Bubble

Bloomberg News profiles the beleaguered ultrarich

By Ryan Chittum   Dec 20, 2011 at 04:29 PM

Bloomberg's Max Abelson has quite an eye for the ridiculous. He's dug up an AIG executive's blame-shifting for the financial... More

Audit Notes: Inflation Inflation, FT on Frannie, Deep Downturns

By Ryan Chittum   Dec 19, 2011 at 11:43 PM

Paul Krugman and Brad DeLong catch Niall Ferguson in a whopper on inflation. Ferguson: And the reason the CPI is... More

Baby Doomers: The Trilogy

The Journal’s good look at a generation’s bleak retirement prospects

By Ryan Chittum   Dec 19, 2011 at 04:10 PM

Back in February, The Wall Street Journal's Jim Browning looked at how the Boomers are the first generation to retire... More

Audit Notes: Walmart Rewrite, AMR’s Strategic Default, Debtors’ Prison

By Ryan Chittum   Dec 16, 2011 at 06:20 PM

When The Huffington Post's Lila Pearl Shapiro wrote a critical story about Walmart's labor practices earlier this week, the company... More

Bloomberg Bird-Dogs Meredith Whitney’s Terrible Call

By Ryan Chittum   Dec 16, 2011 at 03:57 PM

Remember Meredith Whitney's apocalyptic predictions on the municipal-bond market last year? Bloomberg News does. And it makes sure Whitney and... More

Audit Notes: Bloomberg Empire Edition

By Ryan Chittum   Dec 15, 2011 at 06:46 PM

Reuters's Jack Shafer writes that Bloomberg BusinessWeek has become the best magazine in the country, his "primary source of long-form,... More

Hudson on the Corporate Culture of Countrywide

By Ryan Chittum   Dec 15, 2011 at 01:12 PM

The Center for Public Integrity's Michael Hudson continues to turn up whistleblowers and pound on the culture of wrongdoing at... More

Audit Notes: CDS Watch, Murdoch’s Email, Fracking and Quaking

By Ryan Chittum   Dec 14, 2011 at 06:16 PM

The Wall Street Journal has a good look at how European banks have been busy writing hundreds of billions of... More

Reuters Finds AMR’s Cost-Cutting Missed a Biggie

AMR’s discreet $30 million house exposed in a securities filing

By Ryan Chittum   Dec 14, 2011 at 03:31 PM

Back in 2006, BusinessWeek wrote a story about AMR's "penny-pinching," "cost-cutting culture": When it comes to pinching pennies, few full-fare... More

Audit Notes: Nobody’s Guilty In SEC Deals, Swipe Fees, Euromess

By Ryan Chittum   Dec 9, 2011 at 03:09 PM

The New York Times makes a good catch on the disparities in a Justice Department settlement with Wachovia and an... More

A Big Corporate Welfare Story Gets Short Shrift

Reuters’s Johnston and Times Union spotlight news almost everyone else ignores

By Ryan Chittum   Dec 8, 2011 at 12:43 PM

Here's a story that's calling out for more attention and isn't getting it. Reuters's David Cay Johnston wrote last week... More

Sensationalism and Consumerism, Paid For on the News

The Post pulls up a bit short on plugola

By Ryan Chittum   Dec 7, 2011 at 08:19 PM

I like this Washington Post story on how product experts popping up on newscasts are frequently paid by companies to... More

Ad Layout of the Day

By Ryan Chittum   Dec 7, 2011 at 01:44 PM

From the A-section of The Wall Street Journal: More