Missing the mortgage squeeze

Danny Schechter wonders on MediaChannel.org why the media — particularly the New York Times — seems to have missed the signs of the current mortgage crunch now gripping the country.

Schechter wrote, “It’s odd how the front page of its widely-read Sunday edition, the one–time newspaper of record, could splash a story on how the media and the markets looked the other way as massive deals were being financed by securities cobbled together from sub-prime loans backed with no assets. Why were the signs missed, asked the Times?

“Unlike the CIA, the Times did not assess its own reporting and its role in all this.

“A few days later the newspaper’s business columnist showed that, in fact, many did know and tried to raise the alarm. It seems to be an example of the front pages not knowing what the business pages had reported.”

Read more here.