IMPORTANT UPDATE

An earlier post about FAUX's taxes is completely wrong:

July 13, 2011

Categories:

• Newspapers

Reuters column reporting News Corp. tax profit was incorrect

A Reuters column that reported News Corp. hauled in nearly $5 billion over the past four in tax refunds has been withdrawn by the wire service.

“News Corp’s filings show the company changed reporting conventions in its 2007 annual report when it reversed the way it showed positive and negative numbers. A new column correcting and explaining the error in more detail will be issued shortly,” reads a Reuters advisory.

In his debut column, Reuters’s David Cay Johnston wrote Tuesday that the media conglomerate received $4.8 billion in tax refunds, with most of that amount coming from the U.S. government.

After the column was withdrawn, Johnston told The Atlantic, “I have never, until now, had to do anything like this. I am assiduous about correcting the record” and mentioned he will be on NPR tomorrow to speak about the error.

In his remarks to The Atlantic, Johnston said twice, “I shouldn’t have missed it," referring to the reporting change of News Corp.’s accounting practices. The URL for the Johnston column is now a dead link.

Posted by Burgess Everett 06:17 PM