journalists_notes
Table of Contents
quality journalism
- Dana Mattioli and Sarah Nassauer. See for example https://www.wsj.com/business/retail/amazon-secret-operation-intel-rivals-eb82ea3c?mod=hp_lead_pos7
to the point
- Jack Denton - https://www.barrons.com/authors/jack-denton - writes {to the point; easy to read}. See for example https://www.barrons.com/amp/articles/home-depot-to-acquire-srs-distribution-bfd55f53 , https://www.barrons.com/amp/articles/sam-bankman-fried-sbf-ftx-verdict-sentencing-33185555
- Josh Nathan-Kazis - https://www.barrons.com/authors/josh-nathan-kazis - writes {to the point; easy to read}. See for example https://www.barrons.com/amp/articles/bird-flu-virus-human-cow-cattle-texas-e4eaa491
authors I like
- Jason Zweig (wsj.com) write very good investigative articles. See for example
- Jacob Sonenshine and Nicholas Jasinski - their articles have {good analysis; to the point; easy to read}. For example, see
- Andrew Bary - https://www.barrons.com/authors/andrew-bary - writes {easy to read; correct numbers; plenty of data; good analysis}. See https://www.barrons.com/amp/articles/berkshire-hathaway-earnings-stock-price-8f61fc76 for an example.
- Evie Liu - writes {good analysis; to the point; easy to read; plenty of data and statistics; provides evidence to backup claims}. See https://www.barrons.com/articles/china-graphite-exports-ev-batteries-4bdab59?mod=hp_LEAD_4 for an example
- Jack Hough - {good analysis; explains how the business works and builds case in a good way}. See https://www.barrons.com/amp/articles/annaly-capital-sports-mortgage-reit-dividend-stock-price-3972cdfb for an example.
- James Somers - He writes very well. See https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/12/10/the-friendship-that-made-google-huge for an example of his work. It profiles Jeff Dean and Sanjay Ghemawat, two google engineers who together changed the course of Google - and the Internet.
http://jsomers.net/ - contains all of his work.
good reporting
- John Carreyrou
He reported in 2015 that Theranos is a fraud - https://www.wsj.com/articles/theranos-has-struggled-with-blood-tests-1444881901 . It was mentioned in Matt Levine's https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-03-14/theranos-misled-investors-and-consumers-who-used-its-blood-test
- Noah Cohen at http://connect.nj.com/staff/noahcohen/posts.html
positives: articles are succinct, provide full information, no hype, have relevant images.
How I came across it: http://www.nj.com/bergen/index.ssf/2016/03/3_treated_for_smoke_inhalation_after_apartment_fir.html
space filling journalism
- Claire Ballentine at https://www.bloomberg.com/authors/ATR8P7ZTClE/claire-ballentine
See for example: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-15/will-interest-rates-on-savings-accounts-go-up-marcus-ally-bank-keep-levels-low . Very low information density. - Tasos Vossos at https://www.bloomberg.com/authors/ATluWOJkzQs/tasos-vossos
See for example: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-07/blackrock-alumni-want-to-shake-up-world-of-junk-debt-investing?srnd=markets-vp . The title mentions BlackRock Alumni but there were no names in the first 6 paragraphs of the article. Probably writes submarine articles. Ignore articles written by him. - Katherine Greifeld at https://www.bloomberg.com/authors/AS35L0tDv_U/katherine-greifeld
- See for example: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-19/blackrock-alumni-have-a-new-gameplan-to-disrupt-junk-debt-etfs?srnd=markets-vp . The title mentions BlackRock, State Street Alums but there were no names listed anywhere in the article. Probably write submarine articles. Ignore articles from this author.
- Here is one more example: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-30/sec-rejects-grayscale-bid-to-turn-biggest-bitcoin-fund-into-etf. The article is probably a submarine article for Grayscale Investments.
- Josh Robinson at http://www.bloomberg.com/authors/APYZa-30CgQ/josh-robinson
Here is an example http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-30/economists-say-greece-will-cling-to-euro . The article talks about the results from a survey but fails to mention how the survey is conducted, how the participants were paid (if any), number of people who took the survey etc., I find this type of articles incomplete, misleading and utterly useless. - Jonathan D. Rockoff and Michael Rothfeld at http://www.wsj.com/articles/biggest-valeant-holder-plumbed-philidor-ties-1447202547
Basically they wrote 1000+ article which can be summed up in one sentence - “Ruane, Cunniff & Goldfarb Inc., manager of Sequoia Fund Inc., and the biggest shareholder of Valeant is inquiring abut Ties between Valeant and Philidor”. I find reading this type of articles a waste of time.
submarine
- Silla Brush writes submarine articles for Blackrock.
See for example: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-14/blackrock-s-sustainable-investment-funds-surge-to-509-billion?srnd=markets-vp .
Ignore articles written by him/her. - Angel Au-Yeung writes submarine articles for Blackrock.
See for eaxmple: https://www.wsj.com/articles/this-powerful-blackrock-team-has-the-ear-of-governments-and-megabanks-11666235717?mod=hp_lead_pos10 .
Ignore articles written by him/her.
sensational headlines
- Megan Cassella: [sensational headlines, low information density]. Examples: https://www.barrons.com/amp/articles/fed-balance-sheet-5a9bdb18. The headline of the article is “The Fed’s Balance Sheet Held Steady This Week. Why It Matters.” The article did not explain why it matters.
- Orla McCaffrey writes articles with sensational headlines.
See for example: https://www.wsj.com/articles/mortgage-rates-drop-after-three-weeks-of-increases-11656597927?mod=hp_lead_pos3 .
Here the mortgage rates dropped from 5.81% (on 2022-06-23) to 5.7% (on 2022-06-30). A year ago, they were 2.98% (on 2021-07-01). So the 0.11% is not much… but the title of the article is “Mortgage Rates Drop After Three Weeks of Increases”. Also, see the graphic in the article to see what a hyped up article this is.
- Steven M. Sears: [sensational headlines, low information density]. Examples: https://www.barrons.com/amp/articles/costco-e-commerce-play-options-f789d28b. The headline of the article is “Costco Is Hitting E-Commerce Harder. How to Play the Stock.”. The strategy proposed by the author is to sell cash secured puts. This applies to any stock and has nothing to do with Costco. Ignore articles from this author going forward.
speculative headlines
- Anjani Trivedi wrote articles with speculative headlines.
See for example: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-07-18/did-buffett-and-munger-see-byd-s-one-problem-lithium-supplies Did Buffett and Munger See BYD’s One Problem? .
Here she speculated that a big sell order in Hong Kong's clearing system was probably due to selling by Berkshire Hathaway and then went on to describe BYD's current problems. The article is more about BYD's current problems than about Buffett and Munger. Ignore articles written by her.
incomplete
- John Liu, Claire Che, Dong Cao, and Coco Liu
See for example: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-26/china-is-said-to-ask-didi-to-delist-from-u-s-on-security-fears?srnd=technology-vp . The article says “regulators want Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi to delist from the New York Stock Exchange because of concerns about leakage of sensitive data.” But it does not tell how does listing a company on NYSE result in “leakage of sensitive data”? Ignore articles written by these people.
- Katherine Burton at https://www.bloomberg.com/authors/ABoPhmLIrpU/katherine-burton
See for example: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-09/millennium-returns-15-billion-in-pursuit-of-longer-term-cash?srnd=markets-vp . It does not give a complete picture of what is going on and the finer details to make an informed conclusion. Ignore articles written by this person.
same article posted on multiple websites
This could be advantageous. For example, if you want to read an article and it is blocked by paywall on one website, you can try another one.
- Alexis Leondis's is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. Her article titled “A 3% Mortgage? Leveraging Your Stocks to Buy a Home” was posted in the following places
- https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-07-01/a-3-mortgage-leveraging-your-stocks-to-buy-a-home
- https://www.fa-mag.com/news/a-3--mortgage--leveraging-your-stocks-to-buy-a-home-68572.html
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/a-3percent-mortgage-leveraging-your-stocks-to-buy-a-home/2022/07/01/b91dee24-f942-11ec-81db-ac07a394a86b_story.html
- https://the-news-page.com/a-3-mortgage-leveraging-your-stocks-to-buy-a-home/
biased reporting
fluffy articles
aka articles with low information density, articles that make mountains of molehills
- Ignore articles from Al Root (https://www.barrons.com/authors/al-root?mod=article_byline). For example, in https://www.barrons.com/articles/tesla-dividend-paying-stock-covered-calls-2041cf03?mod=hp_columnists, his big idea 'to turn Tesla into a Dividend-Paying stock' is to sell covered calls.
- Ignore articles from Karishma Vanjani (https://www.barrons.com/authors/karishma-vanjani?mod=article_byline). She does not seem to have a clue. For example,
- In https://www.barrons.com/articles/treasury-bonds-buy-sell-c8a5f1b4 - Why Treasuries Are Less Risky After Years of Losses, she says Treasuries are less risky now as they have low duration. She also compares the yield on 30-year Treausuries with SPX but ignores the fact that SPX would appreciate over that time but Treasuries will not.
- In https://www.barrons.com/amp/articles/treasury-auction-bond-yields-stock-market-db08c04b , she says weak demand at 30-year treasury bond auction caused the market to go down. She is wrong. The market (went / started going) down at 1 pm but the 30-year treasury bond auction happened at 2 pm.
- https://www.barrons.com/amp/articles/fed-meeting-rate-cuts-balance-sheet-f79f6526 - example of another fluffy article.
Height of desperation
- Jared Dillian - https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-03-09/does-warren-buffett-not-understand-risk-adjusted-returns - Desperately tries to argue that (1) Investing in hedge funds is better than investing in index (2) How Warren Buffett is wrong about recommending index funds than hedge funds for an average investor. The arguments does not even make any sense. Better to skip articles from this author from now on.
bad advice
- Leonid Bershidsky - https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-11-28/invest-in-bitcoin-even-if-it-s-a-bubble - advices to invest in Bitcoin even though he knows that it is a bubble and a ponzi scheme. Better to avoid any articles from this author from now on.
hyped up
- sciencealert.com - Avoid any articles from sciencealert.com . They seem to be hyped up. For example, https://www.sciencealert.com/seismic-j-phase-shear-wave-detection-reveals-elastic-solid-inner-core titled “For The First Time, We Have Confirmation That Earth's Core Is Actually Solid” was published on 2018-10-19. However, this press release is pure BS. We have known beyond reasonable doubt that the inner core is solid for more than a decade - for instance: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2005/04/14/science.1109134 . We even know the elastic modulus of the solid inner core: http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/6/eaar2538 .
Ref:- comments in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18267460
regurgitation
- http://www.frequentbusinesstraveler.com/2020/01/state-department-urges-u-s-citizens-to-leave-iraq-immediately is just a blogspam of the original State Dept announcement: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages/Iraq.html. Instead of visiting http://www.frequentbusinesstraveler.com, try to go directly to the primary source.
spaghetti
- Geoff Nudelman write spaghetti articles (convoluted; difficult to read). For example, https://www.barrons.com/articles/billionaire-ken-griffin-donates-50-million-to-fund-florida-hospital-neuroscience-care-expansion-90ee7cff?mod=article_inline&mod=hp_LEADSUPP_3 . Try to skip this author if possible.
difficult to read
- Elizabeth O’Brien (convoluted; difficult to read). For example, https://www.barrons.com/amp/articles/401-k-confusion-workers-automatic-enrollment-savings-6c1a2d1d . Try to skip this author if possible.
journalists_notes.txt · Last modified: 2024/09/20 20:30 by raju