The Campaign-Obsessed Press Never Saw Wall Street's Calamity Coming

Blinded by its obsession with the presidential campaign (an obsession that has too often revolved around tactics and trivia), the press this summer all but ignored the unfolding financial collapse. At a time when the public announced, week after week, that it was starved for more economic reporting and that the economy was, without question and perhaps without precedent, the single most pressing issue for the presidential campaign, the press passed.

Because prior to September 15, the press couldn't be bothered. The press had its Story of the Year, thank you very much, and it wasn't going to budge off it, not even a little.

And this wasn't a case of where the press should have provided a community service by rigorously covering a staid, boring topic and forced news consumers to eat their vegetables. In fact, it was the opposite. It was news consumers who wanted to be informed, and it was the press that balked at covering serious stuff. It was the press that refused to pay attention to what voters routinely announced was the most important story of the election season.

Read the full Media Matters column here.