Who's to blame? Maybe its not the media

American Journalism Review has a story by Chris Roush that details business journalists' coverage of the saga that led up to the financial crisis.
It argues that the media didn't fail to see beneath the surface, but that government regulators and the general public weren't paying attention.
Andrew Leckey, director of the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism, said the situation was like an unwanted Christmas present wrapped in shiny paper and a bow, a present that nobody wanted to open to see what was inside.
In the story he offers this advice:

Leckey believes that one way to get readers to pay more attention would be for regulators to require greater transparency regarding the quality of loans that lenders are making and that investors are purchasing. That will allow business journalists to more fully investigate the loan market and inform readers of the true creditworthiness of homebuyers. He believes that will give stories the power they need to resonate with readers. "It wasn't loud enough to alter anyone's behavior," Leckey says. "The information was out there, but I don't think we knew the level of the subprime that some of these companies like Merrill Lynch had on their books."