The stakes are enormous in a fast-moving crisis where the traditional concern about journalists causing a run on the bank is hardly a theoretical danger. But as news organizations chase exclusives about the Wall Street meltdown, they also are grappling with a troubling question: Why didn't they see this coming?
I am sure that there is going to be a lot more on this,I have reported on the rumblings of journalists before and the abdication of their fourth estate responsibilities when it came to checking on the financial institutions on both sides of the Atlantic.
It is worth reading Howard Kurtz's piece published earlier this week in the Washington Post.He quotes PBS's David Brancaccio who says
we journalists have had a long history with accepting what the smart people hand down to us, especially on complicated stuff. . . . When I would cover these very issues about problems with regulation, problems with 'is this a disaster waiting to happen?' people would say: 'Well, young man, you don't have an MBA like I do. Trust us. We went to business school.'"
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