Bad news can affect judgment

Eric Torbenson and Brendan Case of the Dallas Morning News write Monday about how all of the bad news about the economy can affect investors psychologically.

Torbenson and Case write, “You can’t blame the media for reporting the facts, as grim as they may be, said Bob Steele, an adjunct professor at the Poynter Institute journalism school, who also teaches at DePauw University in Indiana. “‘There may be someone out there who says he’s been watching a lot of CNBC and he got spooked and changed his investments,’ he said. ‘But the media has to report the facts, and indeed some argue we didn’t do enough reporting of events that led up to this.’

“It’s the Internet — not necessarily journalists — that’s allowed bad economic news to ricochet around the world faster than ever before, Steele said.”

Read more here.