Here's and interesting piece by Dan Gilmor about the media's role in the current financial crisis.
Now it's easy to blame the media for everything after the fact, but I think he might have a point. For the last few years the West Australian newspaper has run a continual string of stories about the wonders of increasing property prices, the never ending resources boom and the ever booming stock market. Even a month ago, when the rest of the world's economy was crashing and burning, the West was running the same stories, except this time more along the lines of "don't panic, everything is fine, WA is immune from all financial ills". A bit more realism may have been wise. A bit more about the effects of the bursting of any bubble may have been wise. The occasional reporting of falls in property prices in some suburbs may have been wise. All these could have prepared us for what is happening now.
Unfortunately most people don't want to know that their wealth is at risk, and the advertisers and real estate agents who spend millions of dollars a year putting their stuff in the West certainly don't want bad news polluting their advertorials.
When this stuff finally comes out, and we are faced with the reality of job losses, closing mines and negative equity, everyone shouts "Why weren't we warned?".
Why? Because bad news doesn't sell papers.
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