Business Press Tries To Remain Calm Through The Storm

New York Times:

For most of the country, the financial crises of the last few weeks have offered an education in economics. For journalists, they have been a lesson in semantics.

Each day presents new evidence that finance companies are uniquely vulnerable to a loss of confidence among creditors, trading partners, investors or customers. As a result, rumor, speculation and fear can cripple a bank with shocking speed. That has reporters and editors, so often accused of hyperbole and sowing alarm, parsing their words with unusual care.

So in most of the news, stocks have "slid" and markets "gyrated" but not "crashed." Companies have "tottered" and "struggled" rather than moved toward failure and bankruptcy.

"We're very careful not to throw words around like 'meltdown' and 'free fall,' " said Ali Velshi, senior business correspondent at CNN. "If someone wants to say the markets are in free fall, we'll discuss it first," he said, and the outcome is most likely to be a change in wording.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[Bettysdad]

The business press aren't journalists.

They're PR people.

[1rewd1]

Ali Velshi is no "business journalist" ... just a hipster doofus CNN trots out.

If he was a serious reporter on business and the economy they wouldn't be sending him to places like Galveston to ride out the hurricane.

He's their "sensational story" correspondent.

[AllenD]

Of course the Wall Street pumpers, AKA the business press will "try to remain calm." They have been selling out Main Street and pumping Wall Street for years.