With journalists digging for dirt and consultants hyping themselves to the heavens, there is a pressing need for a level-headed account of the consulting business which balances the industry's glaring failures against its successes.

ECONOMIST: Management consultants and their clients: Princely sums | The

This has had a remarkable effect not just on Thais but on successive generations of Western diplomats, academics and journalists who, with few exceptions, have meekly censored themselves.

ECONOMIST: Thailand's king and its crisis

Confronted with a Murdoch-owned Journal, many FT journalists might soon find themselves wishing that he had splashed his cash on the pink paper instead.

ECONOMIST: News Corp is the best buyer in sight for Dow Jones

Why do some of our dreariest journalists spend all their time writing about Goldman Sachs, except to associate themselves with the status object they attack in order to raise their own status?

WSJ: Jenkins: The Inequality Obsession

In addition to the shareholders themselves, influencers with both interested and disinterested motives to challenge deals range from business journalists to investment bankers looking to build a reputation as consultants.

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