Business Reporters Explain How They "Blew It" In Covering The Meltdown

ColoradoIndependent.com:

In a windowless room at the Westin Hotel in downtown Denver, leading business journalists and editors explained how the media "blew it" in covering the economic meltdown. They admitted, on one hand, to falling under the sway of free-market ideology and celebrating risk-taking financial leaders and, on the other, to missing the complex story of the rupturing system by only reporting it in parts and to almost no effect for the past decade.

Read the whole story: ColoradoIndependent.com

Comments

[faith]

Isn't it time that the continual , .."oops, sorry" statement is not enough. Any student, elementary, high school, college who misquoted facts, did not do the proper analysis, would without a doubt receive low marks for grades. Sorry, I made a mistake will not suffice and get the teacher/prof to more favorably grade the paper. Why is it, that the media thinks they have entitlement to continual mistakes concerning facts? They don't.

[pfrogger]

really they dropped the ball.
I hadn't noticed. I am shocked!

thanks for finally admitting it and finally taking "responsibility".
as lucite wrote:
"They are all ratings whores that has no concern for the America public, it's all about big $ contracts and ratings. Watching the news is more like watching embedded propaganda."

thanks for admitting you're incompetent and negligent in your duties. I'm sure that's great comfort to all those that are hurting during these times. You know, the ones that are jobless and homeless.
you sold us, the American people, out for your corporate masters along with the rest of the TV/print MSM. for what? more money? I hope that money feels good. and don't worry about all the American lives destroyed by something you were obligated to report on. cowards!
I hope you loose your jobs and homes so you can feel what it's like to live in a tent city.
I can only hope there's a special place in hell for all of you.

[JoeBlough]

"business journalists " are usually the last to know about coming trends. They write what they are told.

[drjay79]

They have proved they are useless. No one should ever listen to them again.

[itolduso]

In 2005, at the absolute peak of the 'bubble', the F.T. "Business Book of the Year" ... promoted on every business news talk show and in every major business journal... was 'The World is Flat', the 'bible' of corporate self-governance, outsourcing, off-shoring, the joy of deregulation and unrestrained global capitalism at the end of a gun. Each interview was little more than a promotional event- unquestioning, undeliberated, a love-fest for the self-proclaimed "Guru of Globalization"and corporate shill, Thomas Friedman. Well, it looks like he was wrong.....oooops, so sorry.

[lucite]

Journalism is dead. They are all ratings whores that has no concern for the America public, it's all about big $ contracts and ratings. Watching the news is more like watching embedded propaganda.
I trust nothing I hear on the news, had they been honest, out of 100,000 news personal maybe just one would have broken the story of Wall street greed and unregulated finanacial institutions. Not even one?

[pfrogger]

nailed it.
"They are all ratings whores that has no concern for the America public, it's all about big $ contracts and ratings. Watching the news is more like watching embedded propaganda."

thank you,
couldn't have said it better myself

[faith]

Absolutely on point, lucite and pfrogger. So sad. And, unfortunately many americans believe whatever they are told in the media.

[DNoonan]

Can we just post this mea culpa every time there's a huge story?

http://www.pufferfishblog.com/

[lobear00]

That's easy, You turned a blind eye! your not as smart as you thought you were. The profession your in is as corrupt as you are, this is referring to all those clowns who call themselves journalist! you wannabe's should go back to school and study the one's before you and learn what a real journalist is all about. Back in the day they had "Integrity" something that is not in the "Wannabes today.

[alexandra hamilton]

A little introspection is a good thing. I would, though, disagree that the fiancial products were too complex. It was mainly a question of not being willing or not bothering to question what one was told even if it didn't make any sense.
There were too many disincentives in the media industry for people who wanted to investigate. You want your paycheck and you want to live. Since most of the media are controlled by the same corporations who should have been questioned, where would you go when fired? So you keep your mouth shut and arange yourself with the system.

[DangerWillRobinson]

Yet all of these reporters and commentators still have their jobs?

[pfrogger]

as do the Wall Street execs who decided the course of their companies, while they're lating of the lower tier people, who were not responsible for the actions of the company. sure sounds fair.

they're all part of the same crowd of make a quick buck and damn the country or the people.

[GardenerNorCal]

There is very little true journalism out there any more. Those entrusted with keeping the public informed have such a vested interest in keeping the status quo that it's all simply spin, smoke and mirrors. They are as out of touch with the average man as our US Congress.

[Durango]

There was an interesting guest on the Daily Show (or was it Moyers, I get them confused). He said that from the founding of our Republic there was a Panic or a Depression every 10 to 15 years.

Until the reforms were put through by Roosevelt in the Great Depression. We then had 50 years of Panic free times. There were recessions, but no Panics. (which is what we have now. Whether it turns into a Depression remains to be see.)

Then we had the gutting of the regulations that produced that security. With all that Free Market nonsense. (Free Markets only work in theory). And here we are in the midst of a panic.

The reforms of the Roosevelt era produced the greatest prosperity for the greatest number of people in our history.

it was greed and stupidity that repealed them. America simply forgot the lessons of our parents and grandparents.

[ProfessorDuh]

FDR saved capitalism. And for that the Republicans loathed him, and the "Business Plotters" tried to overthrow his government and establish a dictatorship.

[LisaLisa1234]

These paragraphs are the most telling (and the most chilling):


“We soft-balled them because we wanted them to come on [our shows] … we let them hide the ball on us.”

Frank pointed out that there were no representatives at the conference from CNBC — the business channel ridiculed recently for its celebratory coverage of Wall Street — and said it was no secret that “in broadcast financial journalism, corporations are sexy.” Coveted interviews with CEO celebrities had moved investigative pieces off of edit calendars.

“The glamorization of business news [led us] to adopt a posture of reverence [toward our subjects] … We knew it was nonsense,” he said.


At least someone was finally wiling to admit this. They did it with Iraq, they did it with the economy, they did it during the election, and they will continue to do it as long as it's about the profits.

[kareemachan]

Succinctly said.

[Shammie2000]

We drank the Kool Aid and most of us (see CNBC) are still drinking it now, it's how we keep our
jobs, because many of the CEO'S of these companies are died in the wool ReThug's and fairness
and truth is not a ReThug value.

[kappa08]

So now that the dust settles and the mob has cleared you can ADMIT Jon Stewart was dead on....
Do us all a favor and find some other type of work... "journalists" like you will only get us killed...errr wait a minute. Chearleading Bush on a non connection of Iraq to 9/11. Yeah that's right you DID get us killed as well...
Oh the sweet demise of "journalism" jobs all over the country. You couldn't ask for a more appropriate over due wash needed in this country.