Business TV's challenge is to explain and provide answers

Brian Stelter of the New York Times writes Sunday about how business journalists on television have struggled to provide explanations and answers to viewers in the past week about the Wall Street turmoil.

Stelter writes, “Jonathan Wald, the senior vice president for business news at CNBC, said the network’s priority remains getting information to viewers in real time.

“‘If you see anchors on the set with phones to their ears and computers at the ready, you know it means they are reporting right up until the time the red light goes on,’ he said.

“While collateralized debt obligations are hardly TV-friendly material, the gradually unfolding pace of the crisis was tailor-made for the medium. The Internet is increasingly the medium of choice for stock quotes and market commentary, yet TV still provides a drip of news.

“When Paul DeBettignies, a 38-year-old information technology recruiter in Minneapolis, saw that CNBC was showing live programming the last two Sunday nights — at times normally reserved for documentary reruns — he knew something ‘had to be wrong.'”

Read more here.Â