Gasparino: We failed, but so did everybody else

CNBC‘s Charles Gasparino was on CNN’s “Reliable Sources” on Sunday, where host Howard Kurtz asked him about coverage of the financial meltdown.

Here is an excerpt:

GASPARINO: We all failed. Now, that is true. But remember the context I gave you.

And here’s the problem. Here’s my problem with blaming the press. Now, you know, if you look at a bubble, there’s a degree of mass hysteria going on. And if you look at what was going on — and this is the last 10, 20 years — you know, there weren’t very many people on the inside that thought something was wrong.

You know, think about major scandals, Watergate, for instance, right? There was somebody on the inside that saw something wrong.

What’s interesting about this, this bubble, is that a lot of people on the inside didn’t think anything was wrong.

KURTZ: But Charlie, there were all those risky loans, all those subprime loans. Those signals were there.

GASPARINO: But Howie, be precise in what you’re asking me. Should we have known about the housing bubble blowing up, or should we have known about the banking crisis? What are you asking?

KURTZ: What I’m asking is, isn’t it quite apparent, in retrospect — and some people did the stories and they often ran on inside pages of the newspapers — that journalists were not vigilant enough in looking at the degree of risk that was pumped into the economy by these Wall Street geniuses who you now properly, I think, blame for nearly blowing up the U.S. economy?

GASPARINO: Right. Well, I blame the government, too. And you see, you have to look at it — I think that’s too simplistic of a question.

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