Despicable when a newspaper of the stature of the Financial Times has to resort to this kind of shoddy journalism.
This is from Svenska Dagbladet (my free translation):
You are an Embarrassment Financial Times!
It must be deplored that some reporters cold-bloodedly invented information about the new WTO Director Roberto Azevedo.
The day after the World Trade Organization had chosen the Brazilian diplomat as new head a major article was published in the prestigious Financial Times. It began with a detailed description of how Azevedo appeared when he came out of the WTO headquarters in Geneva at 18.30 on Tuesday night to meet a large press contingent. “He came out of the headquarters and met an expectant press gang outside,” writes the paper’s two reporters. The report continues on how Azevedo was quiet and did not say anything. But his happy facial expressions and his smile revealed that he had been elected. A smile that was also used in the title:
The FT Headline: “Sealed with a smile: how Brazil got its man Azevêdo into the WTO”
By Claire Jones in London and Joseph Leahy in São Paulo Last updated: May 8, 2013 9:26 pm
The Brazilian candidate betrayed his success with a smile.
Just after 6.30pm local time on Tuesday evening, Roberto Azevêdo made his way out of the World Trade Organisation’s Geneva headquarters to find an expectant press pack gathered outside.
The Brazilian ambassador to the WTO remained silent. But his cheery expression was a giveaway: minutes earlier, Mr Azevêdo had been told he had secured the nomination to replace Pascal Lamy. With that, he capped an almost five-month campaign by Brazil that saw him visit 47 countries and join President Dilma Rousseff in key meetings with global leaders as she lobbied on his behalf. …
The Svenska Dagbladet continues:
Not just embarrassing, it was just not true.
Azevedo did not come out of the WTO headquarters.
Nor was he silent, nor did he smile and he certainly did not meet any press contingent. He was not even there!.
He sat and waited nervously with Brazil’s UN delegation several kilometers away.
The only one who received the news at WTO headquarters was Brazil’s deputy ambassador Estanislau Amaral.
I know this along with all the other journalists with certainty because we were there. We saw Amaral hurrying out, spoke briefly with him, saw him go off in his official car. No Azevedo in sight. Moreover a picture of Azevedo was sent on Twitter at that moment was sitting in his office in a completely different part of town with his wife Maria.
The FT journalists were not even there.
One sat in London, Claire Jones, and one in Sao Paulo, Joseph Leahy. They invented the story that implied their presence and to provide a personal touch. Not a very good journalistic idea for a magazine that should be concerned about its credibility and its reputation.
They could learn from what happened with journalists at Bloomberg this week. Two journalists in Prague published an article on the Czech National Bank one minute ahead of an embargo. It caused Bloomberg’s news director in Washington to hit the roof, take the next plane to Prague and and fire them on the spot. Journalistic reliability is “extremely important” was the explanation.
The k2p blog 