Wikipedia describes The Business Insider as a site that "..provides and analyzes business news and acts as an aggregator of top news stories from around the web, each with an "edgy" commentary." A couple of days ago, the CEO and EIC published two articles. One was to rebut an opinion of someone who thought the journalism practices of one of the members of the organization to be unhealthy and not worthy of emulating. It took the form of a slanderous, rude and uninformed piece which reminds one of a high school bully. The second one asked readers why people hate some Jews (here's the Gawker write-up on the second article Blodget penned). Yes, they're called the "Business Insider". As for journalism, it'd be an insult to the profession to include those two articles under the umbrella of journalism.
It all began with a New York Times profile of a "financial journalist" at the Business Insider by the name of Joe Weisenthal (screenshot below).
Among other things, the profile noted Mr. Weisenthal's extreme work ethic which leads him to work to the point where there are days when he can do nothing but watch television. Sometimes his wife has to tweet him to get his attention. Before I move on I'd like to say that I feel sorry for Mrs. Weisenthal for having to tweet her own husband. The profile also called some of Mr. Weisenthal's work "air and sugar" journalism and alleged that his work was factually inaccurate on quite a few occasions. A journalism professor then wrote a post about him not wanting his students to emulate Joe Weisenthal despite him having being named the 'Financial Journalist of the Year' for 2011 by Talking Biz News. In my opinion, the factual inaccuracy is indeed troubling since we rely on the media for so much of your news and information. And while working hard is a good thing, there is an out-worldly, novel concept called work-life balance (*sarcasm*).
Henry Blodget is the CEO and Editor-in-Chief of the Business Insider. He went on to write an uninformed, slanderous personal attack on the professor. The professor replied and Mr. Blodget then wrote another piece titled, "NO WORRIES PROFESSOR! Sometimes People In The Real World Like To Work Hard." Two things were particularly troubling to me. One was the BI's inability to accept criticism and recognize the other people's right to have opinions about them that don't agree with their own opinion of themselves. A news organization is about opinions! It publishes opinions, helps people have informed opinions and evolves and improves through reader opinions. This is compounded by the personal attack Mr. Blodget launched on the person holding the opinion, which is entirely unwarranted and despicable. Of course BI and Mr. Blodget are allowed to have an opinion and rebut, but attacking someone personally is definitely not the way to do that! Notwithstanding the intolerance of opposing opinion, Mr. Blodget also attributed the criticism of Joe Weisenthal published in the New York Times profile to the professor who simply quoted from the article. Talk about an organization with problems of factual inaccuracy!!
It is a sad reality that the success of a news organization in the internet era is measured by bottomlines and pageviews. However, distorting facts and launching despicable personal attacks is not the route to success any news organization should choose to take. Ethics, humility and honesty may seem unimportant to the organization and its management in the face of the reality of bottomlines and pageviews, but some of us still think having a conscience and moral character is important. I am one of those people. And I no longer have the tiniest shred of respect for, or ever again want to read, the Business Insider.
It all began with a New York Times profile of a "financial journalist" at the Business Insider by the name of Joe Weisenthal (screenshot below).
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| The New York Times profile of Joe Weisenthal |
Among other things, the profile noted Mr. Weisenthal's extreme work ethic which leads him to work to the point where there are days when he can do nothing but watch television. Sometimes his wife has to tweet him to get his attention. Before I move on I'd like to say that I feel sorry for Mrs. Weisenthal for having to tweet her own husband. The profile also called some of Mr. Weisenthal's work "air and sugar" journalism and alleged that his work was factually inaccurate on quite a few occasions. A journalism professor then wrote a post about him not wanting his students to emulate Joe Weisenthal despite him having being named the 'Financial Journalist of the Year' for 2011 by Talking Biz News. In my opinion, the factual inaccuracy is indeed troubling since we rely on the media for so much of your news and information. And while working hard is a good thing, there is an out-worldly, novel concept called work-life balance (*sarcasm*).
Henry Blodget is the CEO and Editor-in-Chief of the Business Insider. He went on to write an uninformed, slanderous personal attack on the professor. The professor replied and Mr. Blodget then wrote another piece titled, "NO WORRIES PROFESSOR! Sometimes People In The Real World Like To Work Hard." Two things were particularly troubling to me. One was the BI's inability to accept criticism and recognize the other people's right to have opinions about them that don't agree with their own opinion of themselves. A news organization is about opinions! It publishes opinions, helps people have informed opinions and evolves and improves through reader opinions. This is compounded by the personal attack Mr. Blodget launched on the person holding the opinion, which is entirely unwarranted and despicable. Of course BI and Mr. Blodget are allowed to have an opinion and rebut, but attacking someone personally is definitely not the way to do that! Notwithstanding the intolerance of opposing opinion, Mr. Blodget also attributed the criticism of Joe Weisenthal published in the New York Times profile to the professor who simply quoted from the article. Talk about an organization with problems of factual inaccuracy!!
It is a sad reality that the success of a news organization in the internet era is measured by bottomlines and pageviews. However, distorting facts and launching despicable personal attacks is not the route to success any news organization should choose to take. Ethics, humility and honesty may seem unimportant to the organization and its management in the face of the reality of bottomlines and pageviews, but some of us still think having a conscience and moral character is important. I am one of those people. And I no longer have the tiniest shred of respect for, or ever again want to read, the Business Insider.
