[ExI] New York Times: Goldman Sachs Discloses New Bad Publicity Risk

Darren Greer darren.greer3 at gmail.com
Sat Oct 23 01:06:08 UTC 2010


Some one posted an article on Exi a couple of months ago written by Matt
Taibbi in Rolling Stone Magazine about Goldman Sachs' contribution to the
economic crash in 08-09.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/12697/64796


Here is a piece published on the New York Times website today highlighting
Goldman's admission that negative PR is now a financial risk factor for
them.

http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/01/goldman-discloses-a-new-risk-bad-publicity/

The Rolling Stone article, though widely (and wildly) debated, has been been
a thorn in Goldman's side ever since its publication in '09. The company has
been in a war of words with the magazine ever since, but has never
threatened to sue, as far as I can tell. Which says a lot more about the
veracity of Taibbi's facts than Goldman's objections, since Taibbi claimed
that they were criminally responsible for every major bubble crash of the
last hundred years. Time Magazine carried an editorial essentially defending
Taibbi and the feature, and criticizing the Wall Street Journal's negative
assessment of Taibbi's position by questioning his use of metaphor
[specifically his observation/opinion that Goldman was a "great vampire
squid wrapped around the face of humanity.]

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1908562,00.html

It should be pointed out that while Time essentially agrees with Taibbi,
they also criticize the piece on the same grounds that someone on this list
did at the time: that the article focuses on only one banking investment
firm while letting all others off the hook.

Goldman has faced criticism on many fronts in the last couple of years. But
the Rolling Stone article caused the biggest stir and must have been one of
the most influential pieces of financial journalism in recent years. Some
journalists and editorialists claim that the piece may have single-handedly
damaged the bank's world-wide reputation. (Though it also should be noted
that it hasn't seemed to hurt their business any, at least until they
admitted today that the possibility exists.)

Politico carried a story last March about a meeting between Goldman CEO
Lloyd Blankfein and Rolling Stone co-owner Jann Wenner at a Barack Obama
speech, which can be found here:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0410/36209.html

I don't know if anyone else is interested in this on-going story. But,
regardless of your position on these matters, I find it heartening to know
that journalism can still wield influence outside of exposing the latest
night-club blunder of Brittany Spears or sexual peccadillo of your local
elected official.

Cheers,

Darren
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