Coverage of financial crisis, auto industry dominate media
A study by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism discovered that media coverage of the current economic crisis and the proposed auto industry bailout totaled about 40 percent of coverage last week. The report stated, “As more grim signs of a financial meltdown emerged, the troubled economy was easily the top story […]
Proliferation of media leads to scaring consumers about economy
David Carr of the New York Times writes for Monday’s paper about how the increase in media reporting about the economy’s problems is causing people to become more scared. Carr writes, “Every modern recession includes a media séance about how horrible things are and how much worse they will be, but there have never been […]
Geewax to join NPR from Cox as senior business editor
TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE Marilyn Geewax, who has covered the national economy from the Cox Newspapers Washington bureau, is joining National Public Radio’s national desk as the new senior business editor on Dec. 15. Cox announced earlier this week that it was shutting its DC bureau. “After 24 years with Cox, it’s weird to be […]
Too many "buts" in Black Friday coverage
Hal Morris, writing on his Grumpy Editor blog, notes the preponderance of “buts” in stories about Black Friday shopping. Morris writes, “Best balance — without a but — was in the Midwest where Grumpy Editor noticed this paragraph by Doug Schorpp in the Quad-City Times, Davenport, Iowa:  “‘It’s difficult to get a handle on […]
Biz media helped create Black Friday
David Carr of the New York Times writes Monday about how the business media helped create the country’s fascination with Black Friday, the first Christmas shopping day after Thanksgiving. Carr writes, “Except the coverage is not so much trite as deeply cynical, an attempt to indoctrinate consumers into believing that they are what they buy […]
Why CNN has trouble covering the current economic crisis
Dale Dougherty writes on BoingBoing his 10 reasons why cable news channel CNN has had trouble covering the current financial crisis. Here are a few: 1) It’s not a hurricane so Anderson Cooper of CNN is unable to position himself in the middle of the storm for optimal drama. In other words, TV anchors can’t […]
Regulators, readers ignored warnings from business press about housing
UNC-Chapel Hill journalism professor Chris Roush writes in the latest issue of American Journalism Review that the business media did a strong job in covering the problems in the housing market in the past decade, but few listened to the warnings. Roush writes, “Here’s the issue that financial journalism faces: No one likes a nattering […]
Biz journalists missing the story behind sluggish real estate sales
Hal Morris, writing on his Grumpy Editor blog, advises business journalists to get out and talk to bankers about the drop in home sales to get the story behind the story. Morris writes, “When potential buyers cannot obtain home loans, then the housing market continues to sink, dragging down the economy further. “Following recent bailouts […]
Biz media needs to correct facts about average GM worker pay
Eric Boehlert writes for Media Matters that the business media has repeateadly reported an incorrect number — $70 per hour — when it comes to the pay for General Motors workers. Boehlert writes, “Let’s note that any suggestion in the press that most UAW workers earn, or are paid, $70 an hour is spectacularly dishonest. […]
Covering Black Friday? Here are some tips from a veteran
TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE Sue Stock, the retail reporter for The (Raleigh) News & Observer, recently put together a detailed memo on how to cover Black Friday, the first shopping day of the Christmas season, for the rest of the business news desk. She’s kindly agreed to share some of it with Talking Biz News […]
