Is NYT Biz Section Afraid to Go Out on a 'Slim'?

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When Mexican telecom billionaire Carlos Slim pumped $250 million into The New York Times in 2009, a year after becoming a major shareholder in "The Gray Lady," the Times' business section did a front-page profile of its benefactor.

Now that Slim is embroiled in a controversy involving a chief rival and an investment banker, however, Big Money's James Ledbetter believes it's no accident that nary a word about the scandal, which has been duly covered by The Wall St. Journal and Reuters, has appeared in the Times.

According to a Reuters account, JP Morgan tried to sell a loan made to its long-term client Grupa Televisa to Slim. Provisions of the loan transaction purportedly would require Grupa Televisa to disclose any information about itself to the holder of the loan; in this case, its principal competitor.

Such intrigue involving two telecommunications giants and a major financial institution makes for a juicy story for the business press, as coverage by Reuters, The Wall St. Journal and Big Money attests, but the chances of the story seeing the light of day in the venerable New York Times appear to be none to Slim.