If only reporters had some way of telling readers about their potential conflicts of interest. Like, I don’t know, telling readers you had to buy shares to participate and report on it? But that just seems to crazy to exist…
I didn’t say it would invalidate their reporting, but even with a disclaimer the conflict of interest is still there and still undermines the article. A report without the conflict of interest is always better.
Is that really worth it, just to go to their shareholder meeting and try to turn it into a mini press conference? I think most professional journalists would say no.
American oil and gas companies ExxonMobil and Chevron also don’t hold press conferences
I mean, I’m sure they’ve thought about this with regards to these other companies, yet we don’t have journalists buying shares to report on them. Maybe I’ve not hit the nail with their exact reasoning, but whatever their reasoning is no one in the industry seems to think it’s a good idea.
