Cablevision Coverage: Fair and Foul

It nearly kills The Business Press Maven to openly defend CablevisionCVC. I could catalogue grievances until the cows come home, but just say that in my incarnation as a sports writer, they almost had me arrested.

The Business Press Maven has little interest in spending time in the prison yard, so I hold a grudge.

But Cablevision is an important company in its own right and its earnings are essential for what it might indicate for everyone from ComcastCMCSA to VerizonVZ to TribuneTRB. (In an irony to all nearly arrested reporters, Cablevision, one of the nation's least public public companies, might be buying Newsday.)

Here's the deal, though: Cablevision reported on Thursday. It was a bit of a convoluted report, with losses widening but revenue climbing. To the best of my knowledge, everyone mentioned what was front and center: the bottom line was marred by a $104.9 derivative loss.

They Just Don't Get Cablevision!

Ouch. This is the Age of Write-Off.

Here was the curiosity, though. While this year's loss was universally mentioned, not everyone mentioned that last year's first-quarter contained a $65 million derivative gain! Holy $65 million oversight, Batman. Mentioning a one-time $105 million dollar goof without mentioning a comparable one-time gain makes it look like Cablevision did worse than it did.

Here are two representative examples of the reporting and (I love when this happens) the wire service got it right, while the vaunted Wall Street Journal flubbed it. Big time.

To begin, I present to you sentence number five in the most excellent Associated Press story, which makes the entire situation clear as can be:

"The bottom line was affected, however, by $104.9 million in losses from financial derivative contracts, which compared with comparable gains in that category of $65.1 million in the year-ago period."