The problem with covering the credit crunch: No easy villain

TheDeal.com executive editor Yvette Kantrow writes Friday that the problem for business journalists covering the current credit crisis is that there’s no easily identifiable crook to pin the problem on.

Kantrow wrote, “During the last big financial crisis, the one caused by the Internet bust and a wave of corporate fraud, the media knew whom to blame. It chased an ashen Jack Grubman down Fifth Avenue and hounded Henry Blodget and Frank Quattrone. It threw spitballs at the Enron and Tyco guys and jeered at Martha Stewart. Villains don’t come any better than Martha.

“But this crisis is different. True, the media got excited when Wall Street CEOs like Stan O’Neal and Chuck Prince fell to atone for their firms’ subprime sins. And, for a few days at least, it appeared as though Countrywide Financial Corp.’s Angelo Mozilo would become the poster child for bad subprime lending. But without incriminating e-mails or the possibility of any of these people being taken off in handcuffs, they have largely faded from view. Even the demigod of the last bubble, Eliot Spitzer, then New York attorney general, now governor, can’t seem to generate much heat this time around.

“His attempt to break up the so-called monolines may have generated headlines, but the hoopla will likely end there. ‘The Sheriff of Bond Insurance’ just doesn’t have much of a ring to it.”

Read more here.