Ringing the alarm bells, but no response

New York Times business editor Larry Ingrassia responded online Wednesday to a reader’s suggestion that the business media didn’t do enough to warn consumers about the economic crisis by noting a number of stories in the newspaper that did just that in recent years.

Ingrassia writes, “Indeed, I think you are wrong in saying that we (and others in some cases) didn’t ring alarm bells about the potential problems in the financial and housing markets, long before things started melting down in 2007.

“Maybe some people didn’t read our stories, or don’t remember reading them, but we were writing them. Lots of them.”

Later, Ingrassia pointed out, “Could the crisis have been averted if we had written even more? I wish we had as much power as you suggest. We have covered the excesses of executive compensation, well, excessively, including in the ‘Gilded Paychecks‘ series I mentioned in an earlier answer, yet executive pay kept rising.

“I can assure you that we will stay on the beat, and continue to do the type of enterprising and investigating reporting that puts the spotlight on important issues and potential problems. But it is up to regulators and legislators to take it from there.”

Read more here.