Is the media coddling Banks and Brokers in their coverage? Gawker observes:
In July, when Richard Fuld was blaming rumormongers and short-sellers for troubles as Lehman Brothers, the Times ran a column by finance writer Andrew Ross Sorkin echoing his complaints and calling one of the rumors, that Barclays would acquire Lehman, "absurd." Today, with Barclays buying Lehman’s U.S. operations, the Times is still siding with investment banks over investors, depositors and others who benefit from the free flow of information. Here’s some data the paper won’t be providing about the mess on Wall Street, according to an article it published today:
"…said Lawrence Ingrassia, business editor of The Times. “We aren’t going to say, ‘Here are three or five institutions that might fail next week.’ It’s one thing to say an industrial company is having trouble paying its debts, and another thing to say it about a financial institution.”
The Wall Street Journal is also censoring itself on behalf of large banks. Its spokesman said the newspaper would "stay away from" the words "crash," "panic," "pandemonium" and "apocalypse."
Both interesting and amazing . . .
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Hat tip Scott
Sources:
Press Coddles Banks With Pulled Punches
Ryan Tate
Gawker, 8:41 AM on Mon Sep 22 2008
http://gawker.com/5052975/press-coddles-banks-with-pulled-punches
Gasparino vs Einhorn, Kohn & Ritholtz
TBP, June 05, 2008 | 01:52 PM
http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2008/06/gasparino-vs-ei.html
Amid Market Turmoil, Some Journalists Try to Tone Down Emotion
RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA
NYT, September 21, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/business/media/22press.html
Gawker, 8:41 AM on Mon Sep 22 2008
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