Bad News: How America's Business Press Missed the Story of a Century

Description

When the financial crisis unfolded, journalists struggled to keep up with the biggest story of the century as they raced to cover an unfamiliar cast of characters and toxic financial instruments. In the midst of this collapse, the business of journalism itself hit the rocks, as mainstream media grappled with collapsing revenues and falls in circulation. Accused of spreading news which helped create the bubble, the business media came under siege from commentators across the political spectrum. Did the press fail in its critical role by giving into the exuberance of the system?

Anya Schiffrin is the director of the media and communications program at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs. She spent 10 years working overseas as a journalist in Europe and Asia, writing for a number of different magazines and newspapers. She was bureau chief for Dow Jones Newswires in Amsterdam and Hanoi and wrote regularly for the Wall Street Journal. She was a Knight-Bagehot Fellow at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism in 1999-2000 and then a senior writer at the Industry Standard, covering banking and finance. She writes a monthly column for the Japanese business magazine Toyo Keizai.

"Though the contributors disagree on whether the media did or did not do its job, all present smart, deeply considered analyses that make for fascinating reading." Publisher's Weekly "A sort of All the President's Men for our time, and just the thing to lure bright young people into economics graduate programs and journalism school-if only there were jobs waiting on the other end." Kirkus Reviews