This paper performs textual content analysis of 288 operational risk announcements from 80 financial institutions in 18 countries which hit the public media news following the global financial crisis (2010-2014). The “Cheap Talk” theory does not seem to apply to operational risk announcements as the net negative tone, uncertainty tone, and litigious tone in the relevant media news have considerable effects on the equity-based reputation, as measured by the loss-adjusted abnormal stock returns, and the debt-based reputation, as measured by the abnormal CDS spread changes. We find that the net negative tone and litigious tone have adverse reputational effects and that the uncertainty tone causes debt investors to give the loss firms the benefit of the doubt, thus mitigating the adverse debt-based reputational impact of operational risk announcements. Additionally, alternative, simultaneous sources of information neutralise the reputational effects of textual tones in the media news on operational risk events. Loss amount disclosure dissolves the favourable (adverse) equity-based reputational effects of the uncertainty tone (litigious tone) whilst regulatory announcements counteract the favourable (adverse) debt-based reputational consequences of the uncertainty tone (litigious tone). Moreover, loss amount disclosure and firm recognition effectuate the adverse equity-based reputational impact of the net negative tone. Furthermore, by resolving most of the ambiguity underlying the operational risk event, final settlements remove, if not reverse, the favourable reputational impact of the uncertainty tone. Overall, this paper documents the ‘equity-based’ and ‘debt-based’ reputational effects of financial sentiment tones in unexpected adverse media news and shows how such reputational effects are moderated by alternative sources of public information.