OLD Media Moves

Where was the biz media in uncovering Wall Street's problems?

September 21, 2008

Hal Boedeker of the Orlando Sentinel watched on Sunday CNN’s “Reliable Sources,” which discussed the media’s coverage of the Wall Street crisis.

Boedeker writes, “The Wall Street crisis hasn’t just shaken the country; it has revealed that a lot of our press coverage is bankrupt, too.

“What has happened? A cogent explanation came on CNN’s ‘Reliable Sources’ Sunday morning from Steve Pearlstein of Time magazine.

“‘The business press tends to get in with the people that they cover,’ Pearlstein said. ‘They get in the bubble that is Wall Street just like political reporters get in the bubble that is the White House or the traveling press of the campaign. And they get in the bubble and they don’t see the obvious things.’

“Will the Wall Street story push the press to do better and deliver serious, informative coverage in coming weeks? A worried public seems to want answers and news rather than just the speculation and theater that pass for a lot of coverage these days. CNN and CNBC have certainly stepped up their efforts to educate the public on business.”

Read more here.Â Pearlstein is the Pulitzer Prize-winning business columnist of the Washington Post, not Time.