Lying at the Wall Street Journal
futureofcapitalism.com

When I objected to Project Veritas's entrapment of NPR because the conservative provocateurs were lying about their own identities, the Wall Street Journal's James Taranto acknowledged, "the techniques in question do not meet the ethical standards of elite journalistic institutions, including of course The Wall Street Journal."

So it'll be interesting to see what the great Taranto makes of a column in today's Journal by Dennis Berman, an editor at the paper. The column recounts how Mr. Berman lied to a company, SharesPost, to set up an account in the name of his dead grandmother. He writes, "Relying on erroneous information that I, as a test, submitted under her name, SharesPost let Grandma into its realm, where only sophisticated individuals and institutions are supposed to swap shares, according to Securities and Exchange Commission rules." More: "On SharesPost's bulletin board for Groupon—which also allowed me passage with a few financial fibs—users gripe about how hard it is to find shares."

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The WSJ Responds
futureofcapitalism.com

Wall Street Journal columnist Dennis Berman has responded to my inquiry asking him to justify of his use of lying as a reporting technique (see the earlier post), sending the following statement:

As you can appreciate, the integrity of these markets is based in part on honest disclosures by both buyers and sellers. My intent was to probe the strengths and weaknesses of a system that relies almost exclusively on buyers' own disclosures for establishing whether they are "accredited." That self-reporting standard enabled my grandmother to slip through. So might other people with intent to dodge the rules.

My approach and objectives were discussed in detail with the companies prior to publication. As you can see, the story also praises SharesPost for cutting off my access.

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Trott and Scott
futureofcapitalism.com

When Goldman Sachs announced earlier this year that former Walmart CEO Lee Scott was leaving the Goldman board after just a year of service "as a result of increasing time requirements associated with his other commitments," Goldman didn't say what those "other commitments" were.

Read More...

Lying at the Wall Street Journal
futureofcapitalism.com

When I objected to Project Veritas's entrapment of NPR because the conservative provocateurs were lying about their own identities, the Wall Street Journal's James Taranto acknowledged, "the techniques in question do not meet the ethical standards of elite journalistic institutions, including of course The Wall Street Journal."

So it'll be interesting to see what the great Taranto makes of a column in today's Journal by Dennis Berman, an editor at the paper. The column recounts how Mr. Berman lied to a company, SharesPost, to set up an account in the name of his dead grandmother. He writes, "Relying on erroneous information that I, as a test, submitted under her name, SharesPost let Grandma into its realm, where only sophisticated individuals and institutions are supposed to swap shares, according to Securities and Exchange Commission rules." More: "On SharesPost's bulletin board for Groupon—which also allowed me passage with a few financial fibs—users gripe about how hard it is to find shares."

Read More...

The WSJ Responds
futureofcapitalism.com

Wall Street Journal columnist Dennis Berman has responded to my inquiry asking him to justify of his use of lying as a reporting technique (see the earlier post), sending the following statement:

As you can appreciate, the integrity of these markets is based in part on honest disclosures by both buyers and sellers. My intent was to probe the strengths and weaknesses of a system that relies almost exclusively on buyers' own disclosures for establishing whether they are "accredited." That self-reporting standard enabled my grandmother to slip through. So might other people with intent to dodge the rules.

My approach and objectives were discussed in detail with the companies prior to publication. As you can see, the story also praises SharesPost for cutting off my access.

Read More...

Trott and Scott
futureofcapitalism.com

When Goldman Sachs announced earlier this year that former Walmart CEO Lee Scott was leaving the Goldman board after just a year of service "as a result of increasing time requirements associated with his other commitments," Goldman didn't say what those "other commitments" were.

Read More...