Meet the Merry Band of Blankfein Backers

Who: New York Times columnist

What was said: “Has the fact that we are all looking for someone to blame for the financial crisis—and haven’t found anyone yet—influenced the government sanctions?”

What was left out: We’ve found a lot of other villains already. And Mr. Cohan mentioned parenthetically that he owns Goldman stock, but not how much.

Rating: CCC

Frank Schramm

Who: The Awl editor (and Observer alumnus) Choire Sicha

What was said: The suit is “the sadsack SEC’s unconvincing look at a minor bit of potential malfeasance in a single unit of the company in its transactions with other banks.”

What was left out: It was not so minor. A Wachovia analysis reportedly called this Goldman mortgage deal one of the housing crisis’ very worst.

Rating: BBB

http://twitter.com/choire

Who: The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board

What was said: “Far from being the smoking gun of the financial crisis, this case looks more like a water pistol.” Also: “By the way, Goldman was also one of the losers here. … [I]t ended up losing $90 million on the transaction itself.”

What was left out: Elsewhere, The Journal reported that the deal was approved by “roughly a dozen senior executives,” and that Goldman “never intended to buy any of the deal; it just couldn’t sell all the instruments to other investors.”

Rating: CCC-

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