The Street: Biz media lacks perspective

Marek Fuchs asks, “Does anyone remember perspective?”
In an article on TheStreet.com, Fuchs cites the coverage of Costco’s fourth-quarter earnings to show the failings of business media.
Fuchs says Costco announced in July that the company’s earnings would be “well below” expectations. But yet, when the earnings actually came out earlier this week, little, if any, reference was made to the July announcement. Instead, Fuchs found headlines and leads that were lacking the whole story.

Here's a Reuters headline, quite positive: "Costco profit up 7 percent."
And a Reuter's lead, equally positive: "Costco Wholesale Corp reported a higher quarterly profit on Wednesday as price-conscious shoppers headed to the discount retailer's warehouse locations for bargains on food and gasoline."
In its original version, the article made no mention of July. It's been updated since, with a couple of paragraphs about July near the end, but the damage has already been done. The July mention is necessary to put near-terms trends in Costco's business into perspective -- and is there anything more needed in today's consumer environment than perspective?

Read the more here.