This Journal story about Morgan Stanley is off key—and it’s a bad time to be out of tune.
Hey, did you hear Morgan Stanley is “revving up its push into retail banking”? Sure is. Did you hear Morgan Stanley is getting at least a $10 billion bailout from the federal government? Not from this WSJ story.
It’s hard to imagine how you could leave that information out. And the larger tone is just all off. This is a company that borrowed itself into the ground, but you wouldn’t know that from this story.
The Journal could use some of the exasperation and urgency of its bloggers, at least as seen in this post by Evan Newmark on the paper’s own Morgan Stanley story last week.
Things have changed in a bad way. The paper’s coverage needs to reflect that—not cover up for these guys.
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.