The new stars of journalism

Ron Steinman, the executive editor of The Digital Journalist, writes Sunday about how business journalists have become the new stars in the world of journalism because they are writing the most difficult and important stories.

Steinman writes, “They all have an important role because we as consumers of news have inherited a new language in which those writers try daily to write. I am thankful for these changes in our language because of our economic woes. So a shout out to the world of business for adding words to how we think everyday, but not necessarily how we use them. Strap yourself in for the ride we are about to take. There are collateral triggers, quants, toxic assets, toxic securities, underwater neighbors, credit default swaps, ratings arbitrage, regulatory arbitrage, the shadow financial system, stress tests for banks, naked short selling, and those formidable twins, the technology stock bubble and the housing bubble. The other day there was a column in The New York Times about ‘haircuts’ as a financial instrument, of sorts. Haircuts? What other common term or theme would economic writers eventually possess as theirs?

“Did business journalists fail us by not reporting in detail the hidden or even the overt problems in the economy? Did these men and women, once the orphans of journalism, not take seriously where the economy was headed? If they were vigilant, why did we not heed their cries about the falling sky? Why were they not more forceful about the potential risks the economy faced in the laissez-faire attitude of the major moneymakers often aided and abetted by a blind government? Newspaper editors and TV producers were probably complicit in their failure to turn us on about the coming crisis in the economy. After all, business news is often dull and does not usually sell newspapers or get good TV ratings. But so as not to blame the business reporters for everything, we as a public, and I include myself, should have been more vigilant about the cheaters and trimmers in our midst.

“From now on we should keep a watchful eye on these ‘names’ because these are the men and women who have the unenviable task of explaining to us our past, the present and what the future holds as we battle our way out of the current economic crisis. Clarity and investigative reporting is in their hands. If not, it should be. Those who report on the economy now have our attention. As the new boldface names, they should not be afraid to take us by the scruff of our necks, and shake us into reality. They are the new celebrities of journalism who will be with us for a long time to come. We should get used to them being around and when things get better, we should not ignore them as we did in the past.”

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