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Where were our media watchdogs?                                                                                    

Posted at: Mar/09/2009 : Posted by: mel

Related Category: Economics,

Okay, so we have a global economic meltdown. Sub-prime mortgages, collateralized debt obligations, car makers making too many cars, excessive government waste and ear-marks, the list of contributing factors goes on and on. We are all now very much aware of what went wrong and what we should not have done or allowed. So where were our media watchdogs?

In this country we give the press a great deal of freedom and in return we allow the media to take the self-anointed role of the “forth estate”. As this forth unofficial branch of government the press & related media are given tremendous freedoms and access and in exchange become our self appointed protectors. Our media told us about Watergate. Our media told us about the unsafe FEMA trailers for displaced Kitrina families. The list goes on and on. I read a lot in a variety of publications and most multi-subject media such as Time, Newsweek, 60-Minutes include financial editing desks. I don’t remember seeing or hearing any news stories that raised warning alarms. I scan financial media including the Wall Street Journal and Forbes. Again, I remember articles interviewing new heads of these big firms and congratulating them on their success, but I don’t remember any warning flags about how they were doing business.

Don’t misread this, the media did not create this mess. Still, I have an expectation of the media being my watchdog almost to the point of an annoyance. In this case the alarms simply weren’t there, or weren’t loud enough.

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