Are Business Journalists To Blame For The Financial Crisis?

Written by: Philip Delves Broughton
Posted by: Liwin Troy Lee

Parliament's spotlight on the responsibility of business journalists.

If blame were a currency, a lot of people would be rich right now: Wall Street for creating this massive financial hairball, which will take years to unpick; Washington for its failure to act as even a faintly competent guardian of the public interest; mortgage brokers, credit card companies, on and on it goes. But how about we add one more group of people to the list: journalists. Yes, the ink-stained wretches, who are so enjoying the comeuppance of the bankers and yet similarly failed to call out the problems as they mounted. Who doesn't enjoy kicking hacks, after all?

On Tuesday, a parliamentary panel in Britain questioned five of the country's leading business journalists, including the editor of The Financial Times and the BBC's business editor, about their role in the financial crisis. Did they do enough to warn about the crisis before it happened? Why did their reporting not uncover the excesses of the banking industry before 2008? When the crisis eventually broke, did they exaggerate fears, notably during the run on Northern Rock (other-otc: NHRKF.PK - news - people ), which the British government ended up having to nationalize?


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