THE CULT OF THE SCOOP.

THE CULT OF THE SCOOP. James Surowiecki wrote here about how hasty misreporting of a speech by the CEO of GE led to a drop in the stock market of 370 points on the Dow-Jones average in ten minutes. He concludes: “[T]his is yet another example of how the cult of the scoop—of making sure your story crosses the wire five minutes ahead of your competitor’s—in business journalism can wreak amazing havoc.” I am pleased to see a journalist question the importance of scoops, especially the value of getting the report out five minutes early. Reporters value that kind of scoop more than I do, and, I suspect, more than most readers do. The cult of the five-minute scoop leads—in addition to inaccuracies— to leaks of a public document five minutes early and leaks of embargoed books two or three days early. I remember journalistic awards being given for coverage of a scandal several years ago. The awards went to the two journalists whose coverage had seemed to me notably partisan, but not otherwise very good; they had been a few hours ahead of everybody else because they had been chosen by their respective sides as recipients of competing leaks.