NYC panel to explore whether biz media failed public trust

A panel of business journalists and business journalism experts will debate whether the field failed to fulfill its role of protecting the public at Columbia University next month.

The panel will be held on March 7 at 7 p.m. at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. To rsvp, send an email to events@publicbusinessmedia.org.

The panelists will be New York Times business editor Larry Ingrassia, Reuters finance blogger Felix Salmon, Wall Street Journal banking reporter Suzanne Kapner, American Banker reporter Jeff Horwitz and Dean Starkman of Columbia Journalism Review.

The moderator will be Maha Rafi Atal, executive director of Public Business Media.

In the wake of the financial crisis, the business press faces tough questions. In failing to sufficiently expose risk and malfeasance in the financial sector, and to explain the wider social and economic consequences of the crisis, critics say journalists neglected a fundamental obligation to serve the public interest. Many journalists counter that they reported as much as could be known, and defend their focus on companies’ financial performance as serving the needs of the investing public.

At its core, this is a discussion about mission: What’s the distinction between the public interest and investors’ interests, when are they in conflict, and how should news organizations balance the two? How has the broadening of the investing public affected the distinction? In a recent issue of the Columbia Journalism Review, Starkman framed the contrast and argued for a revival of public interest coverage.

Join Starkman, and a panel of distinguished business journalists, for a debate that asks, ‘Did the business press fall down on the job, and does the job itself have to change?’