Thursday, February 24, 2005

You journalists always tell a lie

Amy, a journalism student, is laughed at in a joke by a law professional today. A veteran law professor, who is ranked as one of the most important professionals in China's intellectual property law, told me that he didn't like to be interviewed. "The stories written by the reporters are not always what I told them, though I repeated myself many times." He said.

It is hard to tell if it is the fault of the reporters or the interviewees. But the world, including the financial field, seems full of examples.

The dollar's broadly falling down this Tuesday is blamed as the mispresentation by the reporters and market participants. In New York, the euro was trading around $1.3203, up 1.1 per cent from Monday. Also against the yen the dollar was down 1.3 per cent to 104.20 yen, according to Reuters. Many traders seized on the news from the Bank of Korea(the Central Bank in South Korea), that the bank may "diversify the currencies in which it invests", as a convenient excuse to sell dollars. The bank, however, said that its statements had been misconstrued. It has no plan to sell dollars, according to Kang Myun Mo, director general of reserve management at the bank, reported by Asian Wall Street Journal. But the sentence of "diversify the currencies in which it invests" is indeed easy to be misunderstood in such a sensitive environment. Fortunately, a better-than-expected January consumer prices data partly saved dollar on Wednesday, while the bank directors in Asia, including Japan, announced that they had no plan to sell dollars.


The same thing happened to General Motors Corp, the world's No.1 auto maker, today when a Swedish nespaper named Dagens Industri said that the company was looking for a buyer for its loss-making Swedish car brand Saab, reported by Reuters and other media. The newspaper quoted a source with a good link to GM. Later today, GM blamed the report in the words- "the rumor is totally preposterous", though it admitted that Saab needed to improve its performance. It is difficult to judge now if GM told truth or not, but it is now facing a stronger competitor in US, where it is based, when the Japanese Toyota will lately set up more assembly plant there. There is a chance that GM curiously needs plenty of cash to protect its based market.

3 comments:

Amy Gu said...

But in Asia, if reporters quote some annoymous sources, you have to trust it sometimes. It is Asian culture to protect themselves.

Amy Gu said...

hehe, who is your trusted journalist, I wonder.

Amy Gu said...

thanks for your kind words:) I will try to be neutral and factual