New York—The Columbia
Journalism Review has been slamming 60
Minutes and Lesley Stahl for the program’s coverage of Biovail’s
accusations of collusion between Gradient Analytics and
hedge funds to produce negative research coverage. CJR says 60
Minutes “botched a
business story by using, of all companies, Biovail Corp. as an example of a
supposedly honest firm under attack by, according to the piece, a marauding
short-selling hedge fund in cahoots with a supposedly on-the-take independent
research firm.”
Although the 60
Minutes program ran two years ago, CJR is using Biovail’s recent guilty
plea on criminal charges of illegally paying doctors to prescribe a heart drug,
along with the SEC’s suit against Biovail for accounting fraud, as catalysts
for re-examining the original coverage.
In CJR’s view, the most egregious flaw in the program was
that the reporters knew at the time that Biovail was under SEC investigation
and still spun the story from Biovail’s perspective: “What made the
mistake [portraying Biovail as an honest firm being preyed upon by hedge funds
and tainted research] particularly grave
was that 60 Minutes knew that Biovail was, at the time the piece was
aired, under SEC investigation. The CBS news magazine buried word of the
investigation in a denial by the hedge fund.”
The good news that Gradient Analytics is doing just fine,
thank you, despite extensive legal costs and distractions from the lawsuits
from Biovail and Overstock.com (another troubled firm which, like Biovail, sued
hedge funds and Gradient). Gradient,
which has strong quantitative research capabilities in addition to the forensic
research products attacked by Biovail and Overstock, has been vindicated
throughout the process. We’re sure they
are pleased to see CJR weigh in against 60 Minutes, even it is two years
after. Better late than never.
To see the full Columbia Journalism article go to http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/60_minutess_biovail_trainwreck.php
Posted at 02:14 pm by Sanford (Sandy) Bragg
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