For years, NY Times business columnist Gretchen Morgenson was able to publish her columns about the morality plays of greedy and conniving American businesspersons without critical analysis, save for an occasional letter to the editor.
But the blogosphere has changed all that. Now, sharp analysis of columnists’ views is available almost immediately for all the world to review and absorb. In particular, Larry Ribstein is exposing the vacuous nature of Ms. Morgenson’s columns, the latest of which is this column on John Bogle’s proposal to require disclosure of fund manager compensation. Professor Ribstein comments on Ms. Morgenson’s relentless bashing of what she perceives as excessive executive compensation:

While we’re constructing conspiracy theories about the incentives of all kinds of business people we might ask about Morgenson’s incentives. As I’ve discussed, Morgenson has an incentive to entertain readers, not inform. So she constructs the most entertaining scenario ñ a conspiracy of silence about mutual fund manager pay. Then it’s off to the races, manipulating every argument so that it fits the plot.
Because I find Morgenson to be such a particularly shining example of distortion of business issues by prominent business writers, I’ve decided to institute fisking of her columns as a regular feature of this blog. So after you curl up with the Sunday New York Times, be sure to tune in here for the real story.