5.6 The Way to Avoid The Manipulation from The Sources

As the propaganda model shows, there are pressures to the media such as ownership, advertising, limited sources, flak, and anti-ideology. How do the business/financial journalists tackle to these pressures? The interviewees talk about the importance of education for journalists, judgement of news value through multiple news sources, transparent way of reporting, firm attitude toward the complaints, and codes of practice as self-regulation.

5-6-1. Education

Dawkins emphasises “it is critical that you are properly trained”. No education system may create the low quality of the reports which allows the key news sources and the intelligent readers to leave.

S) “The FT invests a huge amount of training. They sent me to business school in Insead in order to learn management. When I went to Japan, I stop to work four months to try to learn the language”.

I) To understand what they are talking about?

S)“Exactly. This is normal. They teach journalists accountancy, financial reporting, balance sheets. The FT puts a huge amount of money into training its journalists and raising their intellectual standard all the time because that is the future of their journalism”.

(S: Will Dawkins, I: the researcher)

Bogler also explains about the in-house training programs at the Financial Times:

“We have journalists teaching each other, so for example people teach classes. For example, I teach a class on valuation, sometimes how to value companies, you know, everything… how to value companies starting with dividends and P/E ratios do you know what I mean? Then going to more complicated things discount cash flow…or that’s it…how to see the cash flow, how to analyse the cash flow, how to do.., you know. And net present value. So I teach that sometimes, and I teach accounting and then many other of my colleagues teach these things. And then also, we have external trainers coming in, and teaching things”.

According to him, there are two recruitment programs which intend to obtain the experts. One is “graduate recruitment program”, to recruit the students in practical journalism course in university or media organisations and put them in the several sections at the Financial Times for two years. The other is the program to recruit the experienced persons in journalism or financial industries such as “an investment banker, an analyst, and fund manager”. These programs intend to set the intelligent level of the Financial Times high to be critical to business/financial issues.

5-6-2. Multiple sources

In order to be accurate and able to think critically, the Financial Times requires the journalists to have at least two independent sources when they write a story as a scoop. Bogler says “We have a system where if you can get two sources, three is better, but if you have two independent sources that both is telling the same thing, then you can write a story”.

As examined the previous section, it is very difficult for the journalists to obtain the negative stories. How do they tackle to this difficulty? Scott says “you have to have your own contacts”, and he tries to visit the events like conventions and build his own network. According to Dawkins, the journalists need to be trained “through reading, experience, knowledge, constant questioning to the expert sources, moral courage [and] having the ability to say nobody wants to hear”.

He continues, “if the information is new or in question, you should have at least two other sources”. For example, “one company is taking over another, you have to talk to both”. For example, the case like company A tries to takeover company B, and the journalist gets this information from company A, he/she is necessary to talk to company B. According to him, as a tactic to be accurate and not to be manipulated by the source, the journalist should ask to the leaker saying “can I talk to company B about it?” The person says no, the journalist should not make any action.

However, this process seems to be reliant on the news source’s initiative. Dawkins says “you get the limits. You have to be independent. But you’ve got to behave with complete integrity”. To pursue what he talks, he suggests asking to oneself if it is good to report when he/she starts reporting.

“Imagine you are going to explain to your father or your mother, what your work has done. Would you feel happy about it? If you don’t feel happy, then something is wrong. Or, if the way you behave is reported on your newspaper, I reported a takeover, company A to company B in the following way, you know, I didn’t talk to anybody, I didn’t check, would you be happy about that the answer is no, then you don’t do it”.

When he was a journalist for the Financial Times, he got a scoop about the French government’s plan to launch the restructuring of its semi-conductor industry. His news source was the French Industrial Minister at that time.

“I had a talk to half a dozen of very senior people get their response to really fast get it in the paper. What I did is I send all those story and I thought, when I’ve got it and thought story was really amazing, so went back to my original source who is the industry minister of France at that time, told them what I am planning to write and say look, do you really mean this? How would you feel if it exists in the newspaper tomorrow’?, do you really want me to publish this? Then he said ‘yes go ahead’. And…we’ve got it.

5-6-3. Transparency in Reports

A journalist of Bloomberg suggests the new style of the article structure in reporting, the ‘Bloomberg way’. It has four paragraphs in each story, which consists of lead, key quotations, detailed information of the issues, and the big picture. This style is created to show the investors the reason why they need to care about the news. He explains “Every story must say, ‘what does this news mean?’, ‘what does this news show?’, ‘why should I care about this news?’ Every story must have these in the first four paragraphs, if it doesn’t, we can’t, we won’t print it”.

He also adds, “We always bring in a first four paragraphs, winners and losers. Who is wining, and who is losing”. It is actually hard for the journalists to find out who is the winner/loser in a short time. A journalist of Bloomberg talks that they need to call to analysts, fund managers, and economists who “should know” about it.

Besides, there is another rule for the Bloomberg journalists to tell the name of news sources in every report. Transparency of the news source is important at Bloomberg.

S)At Bloomberg we feel more extremely transparent. At Bloomberg you cannot have a quote without a name of ...

I) Yes, I know

S) So that is quite hard. You know, the English newspapers will say, Financial times will say ‘it has been reported that’ or ‘it is reported that’ without any sources, no attribution, you don’t know where do that news come from. Where do this…is it made up or is this some secret guy calling on the telephone?

I) Or creation?

S) Creation.. yes, but you can’t do that at the Bloomberg. It’s impossible. You get fired immediately, uh, but more than that, we would not run the story”.

(S: A journalist of Bloomberg, I: the researcher)

This style of reporting requires the news source to take responsibility to tell information. In other words, Bloomberg gives the source pressure. This is the way to protect the journalists from the manipulation. He continues:

S) “It’s a reflection of… sometimes getting…because in the past, we’ve got burned, you know, in the early days. We’ve got burned by, you know, some company trying to manipulate us, and so we won’t do that anymore”.

I) Do you think that without having news sources or clear information, it’s danger to be manipulated by…

S) “Absolutely. I mean, now, we’re so big and people try to manipulate us everyday, so we have to be very firm about our rules”.

The purpose of the Bloomberg’s way is not only for the protection from the manipulation from the news sources, but also for their own business strategy.

S) “By the end of our day, we want to write a story that can be published in the New York Times, that’s our goal. Because we have four hundred newspapers that subscribe to Bloomberg, and we want… we want to be published in the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune, because they are good newspapers.

I) They already have their audience.

S) “They have, you know, millions of readers. If we get in there, then we think our story must be better than Reuters, or AP, or Dow Jones, which is really…or AFP, you know, AFX, which is the competition. So we have a clear strategy”.

5-6-4. Strong attitude to the complaints

To the complaints from the news sources, the Financial Times shows the self-confidence firmly except the case of inaccurate reporting. Bogler talks:

“If they complain, and they usually complain to the editor, the editor of the FT always has the policy to say ‘is there a factual mistake?’ If there is the factual mistake, we will of course run a correction because it’s our fault. If there is not the factual mistake, ‘please don’t waste my time by coming to complain about me’… Yeah? And if it’s a question of our opinion, ‘too bad’, you know, ‘that’s the opinion of the Financial Times’. And you are right. Companies when they get very upset about something they do it. And chairman and chief executives ring up straight to the editor, you know, they go around the journalist, and go straight to the editor and trying [to] create trouble, but the editor has always been very, very sort of robust, very strong on that”.

He adds that most companies is “mature enough to realise it’s not personal”, so this type of complains are very few. In addition, he also understands that the companies still need to talk to the newspaper like the Financial Times, “because we are going to write about them anyway”. He emphasise that the journalists should take a resolute attitude to their own article and any complaints:

“When I write something that the company doesn’t like, and the company then rings me up and says, ‘okay’, or the PR man rings me up and says, ‘okay, if you really made them angry, they’ll never talk to you again’. That’s their threat. Then my threat back to them is, um, ‘but I am going to write about this company anyway, and if you don’t talk to me, fine, that’s your choice but that won’t stop me writing’”.

Dawkins talks about the case of the advertisers’ complaints. According to him, the advertisers cannot complain about the tone, the length, and the page of the story. Those complaints are “absolutely out of the question”, and there is no need to discuss about them.

5-6-5. Codes of Practice

The Financial Times has its own ‘code of ethics’ (see the appendix). In December 2003, the Financial Times updated its policy on facility trips, freelance work, corporate hospitality and gifts.

According to its policy, “The principle that we operate on is that the FT does not accept facility trips” in order to “control our own agenda”. In other words, the Financial Times stresses on its independence from the news sources. If the trip is really necessary for the article, the journalists are allowed to join, but the policy emphasises “strictly at the FT’s expense”. This rule applies to not only the companies’ facilities but also governmental or non-governmental places and operations. The policy defines that “there is no obligation to print a story and that content of any story is a matter for the FT alone”. In addition, the policy makes it a rule to state “clearly at the end of the piece that the travel company or other sponsor has financed the trip” and the articles “should not appear on news, features or analysis pages”. Besides, the policy set a rule that “journalists should not accept a paid invitation to speak to a company they cover on a routine basis”. Bogler explains about the way to deal with the trips:

“We pay for the trip, because we pay for it, we…then say we will only pay for if there is journalistic value, you know, so if we think ‘okay it is important for you to see the new plant, that’s fine, but then don’t go for a week, go for two days, see the plant, come back and don’t spend four days on the beach’, you know”.

On gifts, the Financial Times policy says “minor items may be accepted” such as calendars, key rings, pens, paperweights, and corporate mementos.

“We are very strict on ethical things like gifts and trips. You cannot accept gifts beyond a certain value, I mean very small, you know. If you look given the gift or sent something, you can either send it back, or you give to a raffle, we put it to charity, we send it to charity”.

He talks about his experience of going to lunch with his news sources, and emphasises to take in consideration of the meaning of having the lunch with them. The lunch is not the one with friends but his news sources.

“When I was doing the LEX column, I went out to lunch with chief executives all the time. That’s fine. I am a matured journalist, then you know, I know what’s…I know the game that’s been played. They think that if they get to know me, and they tell me that strategy, and I know them firstly I would find it harder to write something critical. Right? But on the other hand, they have to realise that they are not my special friends, maybe I have seen one hundreds of chief executives in a year, so I will write critical things you know, whether I meet them or not”.

In addition, the Financial Times set their own code of practice for the employees’ financial interests and profits. It prohibits using the financial information they receive for their own profit, and having any company’s the reporters directly cover shares or securities.

According to ‘FT Editorial Department: Code of Practice’, it requires all editorial staff to register their financial investments such as shares of domestic and foreign companies no matter public or private, derivative positions, and corporation bonds to the company. This registration keeps confidential, and the Editor, the Deputy Editor, Managing Editor and Deputy Managing Editor have the access to this.

Bloomberg also has its own code of conducts. One of them is based on the idea that the articles should be separated from the journalists’ financial interests. According to a journalist of Bloomberg, the journalists are not allowed to cover about the events or companies in which they have financial interest, direct or indirect, unless they disclose the interest to their supervisor. Besides, they do not accept any money, gifts and the treatment which is not available to the general public from any sources. About having the financial investments, he continues:

“Basically, we can own mutual funds (because we can't control how the fund managers decide to make their investments) but we can't own shares in companies that we cover and if we buy other shares we have to disclose our interests.　Disclosure is usually to the team leader and bureau chief and this is passed on to compliance people in the company (and probably lawyers)”.¹⁷    

They are not allowed to write for other organisation including personal weblog sites.