Coke's Earnings Coverage Filled With Air

Even articles that included the breathless 79% in the lead could easily do a competent job at not totally misleading investors by running tame headlines and explanations of the 79% in the second sentence, right after mentioning it. Just look at The Wall Street Journal's mellow headline: "Coke Gets Lift From Abroad Amid U.S. Weakness."

That about sums it up, as far as the accurate overall takeaway goes. It then lifts the curtain with the 79% eye popper, that would not be my choice, but it's fine because it then explains:

"The Atlanta company's important North American business, its largest market by revenue, overcame declining sales in Coke's core sodas only as a result of last year's $4.1 billion acquisition of Energy Brands Inc.'s Glaceau enhanced water. The year-earlier results were held back by a charge of 23 cents a share."

That's all The Business Press Maven has to say on this. But, as when the Times flaks prominently mentioned an extra week of holiday numbers falsely pumping up monthly numbers while the business media just crowed about the miraculous increase in revenue, it is the ultimate betrayal of readers when the business media thinks less critically about numbers that make no instinctive sense than company flaks. Now can someone help me with these childproof pill bottles?