Categories: OLD Media Moves

Fuchs: Business press still doesn't have a good handle on Bernanke

The Street.com’s Marek Fuchs argues in his Saturday column that the business media still doesn’t know how to properly cover new Fed chairman Ben Bernanke, who took over for Alan Greenspan earlier this year.

Fuchs wrote, “After all, as usual with the business media, (mis)perceptions have been swinging wildly between the two extremes.

“In the beginning, as Bernanke was walking onto stage, we kept hearing what a great guy he was. The Business Press Maven derided the worshipful coverage back in February, when personality-driven business journalists everywhere were fawning about how they could understand Ben when he spoke (unlike you-know-who) and wasn’t it grand that he wasn’t another Harriet, the Bush crony who stayed for a cup of coffee as a Supreme Court nominee? “

Later, he added, “When he made the now infamous off-the-cuff remarks to a CNBC correspondent at a Washington dinner, saying that the markets didn’t understand him, you’d have thought he admitted to kidnapping the Lindbergh baby.

“‘February marked the ascendancy of plain-spoken Ben S. Bernanke as the new chief,’ wrote The Baltimore Sun. ‘But mutual fund investors might be pining for the old days and just assume Bernanke had kept his mouth shut.’

“Then, this week, Bernanke opened his mouth again and the markets rejoiced.”