Paul Conley, who worked for the late Mark Pittman at Bloomberg, memorializes Pittman as a “a bigger-than-life, over-the-top, lovable stereotype of the perfect reporter.”
— The libertarian CATO Institute says Pittman fought against the status quo in his pursuit of the Fed’s records:
Mark Pittman and his employer, Bloomberg News, sought details on the Federal Reserve’s numerous special lending facilities. Which firms were getting loans, and for how much and at what terms? These were all details the American public were entitled to, yet were denied by the Federal Reserve.
— Dylan Ratigan of MSNBC praises Pittman and reminds us that the Fed is still appealing Pittman and Bloomberg’s victory against it. Would that more in the media would put pressure on the Fed to come clean.
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— Meanwhile, David Carr posts a beautifully written column on the destruction wrenching the New York media:
Those of us who covered media were told for years that the sky was falling, and nothing happened. And then it did. Great big chunks of the sky gave way and magazines tumbled — Gourmet!? — that seemed as if they were as solid as the skyline itself. But to those of us who were here back in September of 2001, we learned that even the edifice of Manhattan itself is subject to perforation and endless loss.
And finds sprigs of life:
omewhere down in the Flatiron, out in Brooklyn, over in Queens or up in Harlem, cabals of bright young things are watching all the disruption with more than an academic interest. Their tiny netbooks and iPhones, which serve as portals to the cloud, contain more informational firepower than entire newsrooms possessed just two decades ago. And they are ginning content from their audiences in the form of social media or finding ways of making ambient information more useful. They are jaded in the way youth requires, but have the confidence that is a gift of their age as well.
For them, New York is not an island sinking, but one that is rising on a fresh, ferocious wave.
— And Fortune runs a “contrarian”—its word—piece on convicted corporate criminal Dennis Kozlowski calling for his release. It would.
Also, check out that picture of Kozlowski in the story. It does not look like he’s holding up well in the clink. Yikes.
Ryan Chittum is a former Wall Street Journal reporter, and deputy editor of The Audit, CJR’s business section. If you see notable business journalism, give him a heads-up at rc2538@columbia.edu. Follow him on Twitter at @ryanchittum.