Patterico's Pontifications

2/12/2009

Other Than That, Great Column!

Filed under: Media Bias,Morons — Patterico @ 8:06 pm



Today’s San Francisco Chronicle has a remarkable correction (h/t Charlie D.):

Jon Carroll’s column Wednesday on Wells Fargo & Co. contained several inaccuracies: — The column reported that Wells lost $255 billion in the fourth quarter of 2008. In fact, the company reported a loss of $2.83 billion. — The column suggested that Wells Fargo received $25 billion from the federal government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, because it was in financial distress. In fact, in every quarter of the year before receiving the TARP money, Wells reported a profit. Its fourth-quarter loss was related primarily to bad assets it took on as part of the purchase of Wachovia Corp., a distressed bank. Several media reports have noted that Wells did not ask for TARP money and accepted it only at the insistence of the federal government, which wanted major banks to receive an infusion of capital designed to stimulate lending. — Further, the column suggested that Wells had used TARP money to buy Wachovia. In fact, Wells announced its plan to purchase Wachovia on Oct. 3, 2008 – and the decisions on TARP funds were not made until Oct. 13, 2008. Wells has said that no TARP funds were used for the purchase, which closed Dec. 31, 2008.

Carroll was selling Wells Fargo short — figuratively. The way this correction reads, you’d think he was doing so literally as well.

Ah, the filters. Where would Big Media be without them?

11 Responses to “Other Than That, Great Column!”

  1. Was there anything correct in the original article? I mean, he only got the profits wrong by $252,170,000,000.

    JD (c6800b)

  2. Was there anything correct in the original article? I mean, he only got the losses wrong by $252,170,000,000.

    See, MSM, how easy it is to admit you made a mistake, and correct it?

    JD (c6800b)

  3. If I admit error I must immediately commit seppuku!

    Big Media (f7d2b1)

  4. It sounds like a correction on Saturday Night Live. “Francisco Fernado Franco is still dead.”

    Alta Bob (44f27c)

  5. What’s the big deal about a few decimal points?

    Patricia (89cb84)

  6. Were the layers and layers of editors on holiday?

    Perfect Sense (0922fa)

  7. #4 We can always dream!

    JD (c6800b)

  8. Wow.

    And these people sneer at bloggers?

    Rob Crawford (04f50f)

  9. Jon Carroll has his “Mrs. Lincoln” moment.

    AD (1b89c0)

  10. The guy lied and got busted. All in a jornalist’s day.
    He just hopes that his other stuff doesn’t get busted. Can’t win them all, but keep trying and you’ll win some.

    Richard Aubrey (6d05b1)


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