Blogging and Journalism

The Big Trunk at Power Line has a cautionary email this morning regarding recent moves by Sumner Redstone to sell some of his Viacom stock. In a word: Don't jump to conclusions over this, lest you misinterpret Redstone's action and give the blogosphere a black eye in the process. He quotes the email of a reader who cautions:

"Hopefully you guys won't fall for this b/s story. Perhaps you are the sole voice of the blogosphere that can try to stop this b/s story that Sumner Redstone, CEO of Viacom sold 300,000 plus shares of stock with a link to an SEC filing to prove it.

"What they are seeing is a paper transaction of a stock option being exercised, which is the paper sale of some shares at $35 to cover the lower cost ($15) of the option shares. There was no actual sale of shares, no cash gain, and Redstone will not have to pay taxes as a result of exercising his stock option, which is a common practice in corporate America. The reason for the SEC filing is that he is on the Board of Directors of Viacom..."

Professor Bainbridge also offers an explanation for the transaction that rests on business sense rather than any ostensible loss of faith in Viacom.

Should bloggers misinterpret Redstone's actions as a sign that he's bailing out of CBS, which Viacom owns, big media will do all they can to discredit bloggers en masse. Although ABC and the WaPo have produced excellent stories on Rathergate, we can be certain that they're unhappy about having to play catch-up to the pajamas brigades. For that reason, bloggers must be bold when necessary, but must also practice a better brand of commentary and, at times, journalism. The last thing the blogosphere should do is to follow big media's example by creating our own brand of intellectual and moral myopia.