Recession witch-hunt? Burn the journalists!

A tricky and contentious subject uncovered here today on the journalism.co.uk site.

It has been argued in recent weeks, and at a POLIS debate last night in particular, that a significant part of the blame for the global financial crash lies firmly with the Media and their apparent mis-management of the financial institutions, their reporting mechanisms, and the powerful PR behind them in the overall failure of the Press to pre-warn the public of the imminent economic downturn in late 2008 and into this year.

According to POLIS, in their ‘Reporting the Global Crash of ’08’ debate, part of the blame has been allegedly traced to inexperienced financial journalists being effectively ‘spun’ and lied to by certain financial institutions in their attempts to cover up, offset, and generally pull the wool over the eyes of the public, to the upcoming crisis in which the nation currently finds itself as part of a wider global recession.

Excellent – blame the Press. As it well pointed out here by Charlie Beckett, don’t shoot the messenger is an apt reminder when victims to burn at the stake of the global crash are being sought with vigour.

This is a fascinating topic, and one which will impact on all time-pressured editorial out there, whether they are reporting on the financial sector or not.

It reminds us all that we are accountable to our readerships.