About six weeks back, investor Carl Icahn announced he’d be closing the hedge fund he opened in 2004. The move- and the fact that Icahn is 75 years old- got the Times thinking. Thinking things like 1) Icahn’s getting up there in years and might die soon (as evidenced by the headline “The Raider In The Winter” and 2) That he’d “lost so much money during the financial crisis that he is still a bit shaken by the experience.” Icahn addressed the second point, which he says is false, in a letter to the editor over the weekend. The short version? The Grey Lady can suck it. The slightly longer version: Continue reading »
New York Times
We have no reason to believe such is the case! We simply offer up the timing of the aggressively awkward interview with Goldman Sachs’ Abby Joseph Cohen, the interviewer’s resignation several days later, and The Power Of The Squid. [NYO via DI]
Krugman and Sorkin told me that they talked Thursday. Sorkin said the conversation was “very cordial.” Krugman called it “not much fun.” They agreed that they disagree on the definition of nationalization.
Earlier: “Andrew Ross Sorkin Owes Several People An Apology”
Dueling Columnists [NYT]
The big New York profile on Times Boy Andrew Ross Sorkin is out today. Gabe Sherman tells us all about the jealousy the DealBook editor has inspired among his colleagues, what with his big (for a journalist) paycheck, his fame, and, most especially, his Rolodex of BSD sources. There’s been a lot of alleged trash talk in the newsroom, most recently on account of Don Van Natta and Gretchen Morgenson claiming he stole material from them for his book. Before that (and still) the complaints have been that the reason Sorkin counts many a chief executive as a source is because he goes far too easy on them in print. Whether or not that’s true, not being “adversarial or coming to the table with an ax to grind” isn’t the only way ARS has managed to get people like Mack and Buffett and Dimon and Schwarzman on speed-dial (and at his party). According to Graydon Carter, it’s by 1) His “boyish”-ness and 2) something else that we would never suggest but that I think we’re supposed to guess by way of nonsensical euphemism.
Sorkin has another crucial advantage in the world he’s traveling in: He gives good son. “There’s something about his boyish, Jimmy Stewart charm that the older men he deals with find incredibly winning,” Graydon Carter says.
The Information Broker [NYM]
Imagine for a moment, on some overlooked island chain in the heart of the South Pacific, an otherwise obscure tribe has lived quietly for hundreds of years. Suppose further that their culture happens to have 27 different words for the concept of “Irony,” each possessed of a fantastically unique and nuanced umbra of distinctive interpretation. Finally, assume that these words managed somehow to incorporate themselves into the English language gracefully. Even with this set of facts, we would still possess a woefully insufficient literary-ammunition dump to fully do justice to this story:
Ben Stein Fired From New York Times For Ethics Violation Related To Credit Report Bait And Switch Endorsement
Gawker has the Gray Lady’s response via Catherin Mathis:
Ben Stein’s fine work for us as a columnist for Sunday Business had to end, we told him, after we learned that he had become a commercial spokesman for FreeScore, a financial services company. Ben didn’t understand when he signed on with FreeScore that this might pose a potential conflict for him as a contributing columnist for the Times, because he hadn’t written about credit scores or this company. But, we decided that being a commercial spokesman for FreeScore while writing his column wouldn’t be appropriate.
Pitchman Ben Stein Gets Economist Ben Stein Fired at the New York Times [Gawker]
Media to Assist In Resolving Credit Crisis By Coloring Truth In Other Direction For Now
By Equity PrivateFortunately, the media, typically tasked with inflaming tense situations as much as possible, has agreed to shift the focus in the other direction for a while. Fresh on the heels of very serious and very determined corrections to avoid the wrath of Andrew Cuomo’s financial thought police, the New York Times covers the emergent phenomenon, which, like most stories in the media about the media, gives the media high marks for restraint and Newspeakness.
“We’re very careful not to throw words around like ‘meltdown’ and ‘free fall,’ ” said Ali Velshi, senior business correspondent at CNN. “If someone wants to say the markets are in free fall, we’ll discuss it first,” he said, and the outcome is most likely to be a change in wording.
CNN isn’t the only sterling provider of quality financial news that is thumbing the scale a little bit in favor of totally panicked and totally-on-the-brink-of-collapse firms.*
” ‘Crash,’ ‘panic,’ ‘pandemonium,’ ‘apocalypse,’ those are the words we’re staying away from,” said Robert H. Christie, a spokesman for The Wall Street Journal, now part of the News Corporation.
Even the sleeveless one gets kudos.
“I want to caution everybody,” said the on-air editor, Charles Gasparino. He said several times that the tip came from “Wall Street sources,” not the government, adding, “We have yet to get a confirmation from the Treasury Department.”
Uh, no comment.
Of course, this wouldn’t be an article from the New York Times, if it didn’t discuss the New York Times.
Early this month, a New York Times article described Lehman as “ailing” and “precarious,” but did not explicitly mention the possibility of failure or bankruptcy.
I smell a Pulitzer.
Amid Market Turmoil, Some Journalists Try to Tone Down Emotion [New York Times]
* Not that we are suggesting any firms at all are experiencing any dip or drop or depression or temporary slowdown or anything whatsoever that might bring them the slightest bit closer to anything resembling failure or the like. Kay. Thanks.
We have the best readers in all of finance. Yes, they have names like “MostOffensive,” but they catch big ones for us now and then.
The reality is that the media can do far more damage far more quickly than short sellers ever will. Shall we call for them to face criminal charges for their poor judgment as well?
Editor’s Note
A front-page article on Thursday reported on discussions the investment bank Morgan Stanley has had with possible merger partners. It cited two people who were said to have been briefed on a conversation in which John J. Mack, chief executive of Morgan Stanley, had told Vikram S. Pandit, Citigroup’s chief executive, that “we need a merger partner or we’re not going to make it.”
After the article appeared, Morgan Stanley vigorously denied that Mr. Mack had made the comment, as did Citigroup, which had declined to comment on Wednesday. The two people whom The Times cited now say that because they were not present during the discussions, they cannot confirm that Mr. Mack in fact made the statement. The Times should have asked Morgan Stanley for comment and should not have used the quotation without verifying that the two people had direct knowledge of any comments made by Mr. Mack.
Corrections [New York Times] (Via DealBreaker reader “MostOffensive”)
Legendary Wall Streeter Ken Langone, who once attempted to purchase the New York Stock Exchange, hurled insults at the New York Times this morning on CNBC’s Squawk Box. He was describing an op-ed he’s been working on for the Wall Street Journal about his long battle with disgraced former New York governor and Eliot Spitzer. One of the co-hosts of the program asked him about whether he might try to get it in the New York Times.
“I don’t even try with the Times,” Langone said. “Why write for some newspaper you don’t even read? I mean, it doesn’t make sense.”
Homeownership is overrated and the government went too far in pushing it on the American people, Paul Krugman writes in today’s New York Times. He suggests it’s time for America to “drop the obsession with ownership.”
We couldn’t agree more. Four months ago we wrote: “The social engineering program entitled the ‘ownership society’ has failed and ought to be abandoned.”
It is, officially, on.
A dissident investor stepped up pressure on The New York Times Co. Friday, formally proposing its own slate of four directors and saying the company needs to take more drastic action to compete online.
Harbinger Capital, an investment firm that now owns about 19 percent of the company, filed its own proxy statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission listing its nominees for directors to be elected at the Times’ annual meeting April 22.
The Times has already filed its own full slate of director nominees, but has said it was still considering whether to accept Harbinger’s candidates.
Fund Nominates 4 for N.Y. Times Board [Associated Press via Breibart.com]
