Shouting “Fire!” in the Middle of a Conflagration

Amazing! Jon Friedman of MarketWatch believes the press has been too prudent in describing the financial meltdown. In his commentary, Media shouldn’t shy away from explosive language, he accuses journalists of “hedging their bets and falling back on imprecise, sugar-coated language.” Friedman would “prefer bluntness and brutal truth.” He wants to call a meltdown a meltdown. “Bloodbath” would be even better, in his opinion.

You can call me a cockeyed optimist, but all I want to know is where has this guy been all this time? The U.S. government is proposing a $700 BILLION bailout. A number of economists have been quoted as saying that this is “the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.” Do we really need stronger adjectives to describe the financial meltdown more clearly? I don’t think so.

I’ve been saving the front page of The Wall Street Journal all this week, I guess for posterity. Almost every day there have been large font headlines which have included the words Crisis and Failure. Depending on Congress, we may see Panic added to that any day now.

Aside from the headlines, the stories have made reference to “credit freezing,” “backstopping Money Market Mutual funds,” and “banks being afraid to lend to each other.” Do journalists really need to dramatize these events more? Once again, the answer is no.

We’ve had several large financial institutions disappearing over the last couple of months. Companies that are being bought under pressure, going bankrupt, taken over, or “saved” by the U.S. government include: AIG, Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers and now, Washington Mutual. Have I left any out? Well I guess you could include Merrill Lynch on the “sick but saved” list, just without the help of the federal government.

Just today, CNN.com had an article assuring us that there would NOT be another Great Depression. Even six weeks ago, who would have imagined that such reassurances would be necessary?

So PLEEZE, don’t talk to me about the press being too “prudent and proper.”

photo credit: megananne