Journalism priorities

Yesterday, CNBC made a big deal all day about the fact that one of its journalists, Maria Bartiromo, was the first with the story that Phillip Purcell was stepping down at Morgan Stanley. What this means is that someone at Morgan Stanley leaked the info to her before they officially released it. This is another example of news media focusing on something that the consumer cares little to nothing about.

Now I understand that some active stock traders may feel like they can get a momentary edge if they get info before someone else gets it. Of course, since CNBC is the major financial cable channel, when they get a story first it means the whole market has it.

In the larger scheme of news, 99% of us are far more concerned that the news we get is accurate and complete. I really don't care which reporter got the tip at 7:58 instead on 8:03. Especially if I don't check out the news until the next day.
What would affect my choice of news sources would be a claim that a particular source had stories that other sources didn't cover and/or had documented that they made fewer errors in the stories they covered.

Beating the competition by a few minutes is nothing compared to beating them on accuracy and completeness.