AJR: "Business journalists shined a spotlight on serious problems in the U.S. economy"

American Journalism Review gives credit to business journalists who warned the public about a looming financial crisis. The mainstream media have been routinely criticized for playing a significant role in the financial mess by not exposing inconsistencies and sings of trouble to readers and viewers. The Washington Post's media writer Howard Kurtz wrote, "As in the savings-and-loan scandal of the late 1980s, the press was a day late and several dollars short." 

Long-time business journalist and MarketWatch media columnist Jon Friedman complained journalists were too "polite and deferential" to Wall Street CEOs in their coverage. 

But AJR sees things differently:

The business media in 2008 serve as a welcome scapegoat for those who simply want to ignore their own culpability in the financial meltdown. But it's a bad rap. Gone since the tech bubble burst in 2000 are the flattering CEO profiles and the touting of Internet companies with no revenue. The business media have done yeoman's work during the past decade-plus to expose wrongdoing in corporate America. In fact, a review of the top business publications in the country shows that they blanketed the major issues, from subprime loans to adjustable-rate mortgages to credit derivatives, that caused so much economic pain. 

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