Kurtz shouldn't blame business media for economy's problems

Yvette Kantrow, the executive editor of The Deal, writes Friday that Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz is misguided when he places some of the blame of the current financial crisis on the business media.

Kurtz writes, “Only a fool would argue that the media could not have done a better job at sounding the alarm in the years leading up to the credit crisis — though what other part of the media is expected to make long-term predictions? We all know that the media, like the market itself, is a bullish creature. But columns like Kurtz’s are also wrongheaded on two fronts: First, they make you want to ask, ‘Well, Howie, what were you doing while the rest of us were busy missing the big story?’ (Well, gabbing on CNN.) And second, they fail to tell us exactly what kind of stories would have prevented us from ending up in the predicament we’re in now.

“Kurtz admits some stories were indeed done — there were dozens of housing bubble pieces, and there were prescient warnings from The New York Times’ Gretchen Morgenson about credit default swaps — though you do wonder how deep Kurtz’s reading goes. But, he argues, the media didn’t put all the pieces together and warn us that the banking system was about to fall off a cliff.

“In short, the media failed to fully predict the future, an easy observation to make with the benefit of hindsight.”

Read more here.