OLD Media Moves

Bartiromo's weak interview with Summers

June 26, 2009

Ryan Chittum of Columbia Journalism Review lets Maria Bartiromo have it over her poor interview with White House economic advisor Larry Summers.

Chittum writes, “Bartiromo — again — doesn’t ask Summers about his being ‘bought and paid for’ by Wall Street, as Portfolio’s Ryan Avent put it — pointing to a Felix Salmon rundown of Summers’ earnings from DE Shaw — after the last Bartiromo-Summers faceoff just two months ago.

“As Avent said then:

But at least he’s smart enough to pick an interviewer who won’t ask him the really tough questions, like whether his actions as Treasury secretary helped to pump up the financial-services bubble whose implosion we’re all now suffering through, and whether he owes the American people an apology.

“Right. And here are some other questions she doesn’t ask:

“Hey, Larry, why did you fight so hard against your own administration for Wall Street to keep derivatives unregulated back in the 1990s? Do you want to apologize to Brooksley Born? Why should anyone listen to what you say after you’ve gotten so much so wrong? Why and how have you pushed aside Paul Volcker in the Obama administration? Why not put a cap on the size of Too Big to Fail institutions and break them up? Why do you still get F’s in ‘plays well with others.'”

Read more here.

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