sharon sanders
Editor-in-Chief & President
What implications does this media coverage during a financial crisis have for media coverage during a massive disease emergency?
from the New York Times:
September 22, 2008
<nyt_headline version="1.0" type=" "> Amid Market Turmoil, Some Journalists Try to Tone Down Emotion </nyt_headline>
<nyt_byline version="1.0" type=" "> </nyt_byline>By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA
<nyt_text> </nyt_text> For most of the country, the financial crises of the last few weeks have offered an education in economics. For journalists, they have been a lesson in semantics.
Each day presents new evidence that finance companies are uniquely vulnerable to a loss of confidence among creditors, trading partners, investors or customers. As a result, rumor, speculation and fear can cripple a bank with shocking speed. That has reporters and editors, so often accused of hyperbole and sowing alarm, parsing their words with unusual care.
So in most of the news, stocks have “slid” and markets “gyrated” but not “crashed.” Companies have “tottered” and “struggled” rather than moved toward failure and bankruptcy.
snip<snip>
“We’re very careful not to throw words around like ‘meltdown’ and ‘free fall,’ ” said Ali Velshi, senior business correspondent at CNN.
snip
<snip>This year, the media have been accused of contributing to the collapse of both Bear Stearns and IndyMac, a large California thrift, so journalists are more aware of the risk of stoking fear — and the risk of being blamed.
Journalists say there is a narrow gap between their duty to convey the extent of what is happening to banks and markets and causing panic. In fact, “panic” heads the list of words that major news organizations have avoided using because they are seen as potentially self-fulfilling.
snip
“ ‘Crash,’ ‘panic,’ ‘pandemonium,’ ‘apocalypse,’ those are the words we’re staying away from,” said Robert H. Christie, a spokesman for The Wall Street Journal, now part of the News Corporation.
snip
<snip>
“I wouldn’t say we’re not doing those stories, but we’re doing them very carefully,” said Andrew Serwer, managing editor of Fortune magazine, a Time Warner publication. “How do you say ‘There’s panic out there, but don’t panic?’ And is it even our responsibility to say, ‘Don’t panic.’? ”
<snip>
snip
Early this month, a New York Times article described Lehman as “ailing” and “precarious,” but did not explicitly mention the possibility of failure or bankruptcy.
<snip>
snip
Last summer, Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York publicly raised the prospect that IndyMac could collapse, and days later, a run on IndyMac forced it out of business. IndyMac employees and a federal regulator accused Mr. Schumer — and, indirectly, the media, for repeating his statements — of hastening its demise. Mr. Schumer maintains that the thrift needed no help to fail.
<snip>snip
On Thursday, CNBC broke the news of a possible gigantic federal takeover of bad mortgage loans.
“I want to caution everybody,” said the on-air editor, Charles Gasparino. He said several times that the tip came from “Wall Street sources,” not the government, adding, “We have yet to get a confirmation from the Treasury Department.”
Moments later, he said that viewers should take into account that his sources “all have vested interests in this happening.” Iin the next half hour, well before the government confirmed it would buy up toxic mortgages, the stock market jumped almost 3 percent.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/b...gin&adxnnlx=1222180473-RK18KYpB59RQAahbxs/A6A</snip></snip></snip></snip></snip></snip>
from the New York Times:
September 22, 2008
<nyt_headline version="1.0" type=" "> Amid Market Turmoil, Some Journalists Try to Tone Down Emotion </nyt_headline>
<nyt_byline version="1.0" type=" "> </nyt_byline>By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA
<nyt_text> </nyt_text> For most of the country, the financial crises of the last few weeks have offered an education in economics. For journalists, they have been a lesson in semantics.
Each day presents new evidence that finance companies are uniquely vulnerable to a loss of confidence among creditors, trading partners, investors or customers. As a result, rumor, speculation and fear can cripple a bank with shocking speed. That has reporters and editors, so often accused of hyperbole and sowing alarm, parsing their words with unusual care.
So in most of the news, stocks have “slid” and markets “gyrated” but not “crashed.” Companies have “tottered” and “struggled” rather than moved toward failure and bankruptcy.
snip<snip>
“We’re very careful not to throw words around like ‘meltdown’ and ‘free fall,’ ” said Ali Velshi, senior business correspondent at CNN.
snip
<snip>This year, the media have been accused of contributing to the collapse of both Bear Stearns and IndyMac, a large California thrift, so journalists are more aware of the risk of stoking fear — and the risk of being blamed.
Journalists say there is a narrow gap between their duty to convey the extent of what is happening to banks and markets and causing panic. In fact, “panic” heads the list of words that major news organizations have avoided using because they are seen as potentially self-fulfilling.
snip
“ ‘Crash,’ ‘panic,’ ‘pandemonium,’ ‘apocalypse,’ those are the words we’re staying away from,” said Robert H. Christie, a spokesman for The Wall Street Journal, now part of the News Corporation.
snip
<snip>
“I wouldn’t say we’re not doing those stories, but we’re doing them very carefully,” said Andrew Serwer, managing editor of Fortune magazine, a Time Warner publication. “How do you say ‘There’s panic out there, but don’t panic?’ And is it even our responsibility to say, ‘Don’t panic.’? ”
<snip>
snip
Early this month, a New York Times article described Lehman as “ailing” and “precarious,” but did not explicitly mention the possibility of failure or bankruptcy.
<snip>
snip
Last summer, Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York publicly raised the prospect that IndyMac could collapse, and days later, a run on IndyMac forced it out of business. IndyMac employees and a federal regulator accused Mr. Schumer — and, indirectly, the media, for repeating his statements — of hastening its demise. Mr. Schumer maintains that the thrift needed no help to fail.
<snip>snip
On Thursday, CNBC broke the news of a possible gigantic federal takeover of bad mortgage loans.
“I want to caution everybody,” said the on-air editor, Charles Gasparino. He said several times that the tip came from “Wall Street sources,” not the government, adding, “We have yet to get a confirmation from the Treasury Department.”
Moments later, he said that viewers should take into account that his sources “all have vested interests in this happening.” Iin the next half hour, well before the government confirmed it would buy up toxic mortgages, the stock market jumped almost 3 percent.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/b...gin&adxnnlx=1222180473-RK18KYpB59RQAahbxs/A6A</snip></snip></snip></snip></snip></snip>