the audit

Reporters Jump on Reports from Reporters

The speculation surrounding Ford Motor Co. this week has been special, to say the least.
September 13, 2006

On USA Today‘s homepage this morning, a leading headline was “Speculation swirls around Ford.” Simultaneously, the digital front of the paper’s Money section carried the headline “Ford speculation grows.” Clearly, this is some special speculation — it’s exhibiting the characteristics of a weather front. And it’s alive! — like a beanstalk.

Under a third headline noting that the speculation was again swirling, the Associated Press story began, “Ford’s board is meeting today and Thursday amid speculation that it will consider a plan to cut white-collar staffing, benefits and other costs by 30 percent as part of a broader restructuring, according to a published report.”

Then came a veritable hurricane of further speculation, anonymice, and pseudo-reporting.

“That report appears on the Web site of the Wall Street Journal, which cited ‘people familiar with the matter’ who it didn’t name,” continued the AP. “On Monday, the Detroit News, citing people familiar with the plan who it didn’t name, reported that Ford was preparing a round of salaried cuts that could be announced as early as Friday.”

Crediting the News with the news “that the cuts would be deeper than the 4,000 white collar jobs eliminated in the first quarter of the year,” the AP added:

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Other speculation also swirled around the struggling automaker. The Detroit Free Press reported in a story for its Wednesday editions that the automaker doesn’t plan to sell its finance arm to Ford Motor Credit, citing “people with knowledge of Ford’s plan” who it didn’t name.

It had been previously reported [by people with knowledge, no doubt] that a sale was being considered.

Further down, the AP, in USA Today, reported that “The Wall Street Journal said details of the cost-cutting efforts could be disclosed as soon as Friday.” And, “The Free Press reported Sunday, citing sources it didn’t name, that the board will be faced with the option of cutting about 6,000 more jobs than previously announced by the end of the year.”

Meanwhile, CNNMoney and MarketWatch duly reprinted the Journal’s reporting, heavy on “people familiar with the matter.” (Said MarketWatch: “The report, citing people familiar with the matter, said that Ford will seek to cut costs …”)

And Bloomberg offered this winning headline: “Ford Will Accelerate Planned Job Cuts, People Say.”

Which inspired this news bulletin from the Free Press on Monday: “Ford Motor Co. plans to accelerate its scheduled 30,000 job cuts … four unidentified people familiar with the company’s strategy have told Bloomberg News.”

And what does Ford say about all this? Unfortunately, as the AP and many of its erstwhile competitors noted, Ford Motor is not commenting on speculation.

Edward B. Colby was a writer at CJR Daily.