This story suits this blog's purposes so well that it's almost hard to believe it wasn't written just for me.
Amid Market Turmoil, Some Journalists Try to Tone Down Emotion
"For most of the country, the financial crises of the last few weeks have offered an education in economics. For journalists, they have been a lesson in semantics."
What a relief!
While watching CNN this past week, I've been struck by how many times I've seen and heard the phrase "economic crisis". It's made me worried. Not worried because I feel the tug of the "crisis" on my pockets, but worried because I imagine viewers all over the country throwing their arms up in panic, faces wrinkled in angst, tears in their eyes and panic in their steps as they run to the nearest bank and drain their accounts. Crisis! Financial crisis! They slam into each other as they run home, clutching their life savings to their chests, fists clenched and red, sweat on their brows.
Isn't that what happened right before the Great Depression? Confidence in the banking system faltered, everyone ran to get their money, the banking system collapsed. Crisis!
It's hard to know what to trust. The TV anchors with their best clenched smiles say we're on the brink of disaster. "We're headed for a depression!" NPR has financial experts on Morning Edition reciting numbers and quoting other experts in the attempt to qualm fears. "Yes," they say. "This is a recession. Yes, the economy is in it's worse shape since the depression. BUT, keep in mind, the GREAT depression was REALLY bad. This is nothing compared to that. Our unemployment rate holds steady at only 6%!"
“ ‘Crash,’ ‘panic,’ ‘pandemonium,’ ‘apocalypse,’ those are the words we’re staying away from,” said Robert H. Christie, a spokesman for The Wall Street Journal, now part of the News Corporation.
“We’re very careful not to throw words around like ‘meltdown’ and ‘free fall,’ ” said Ali Velshi, senior business correspondent at CNN. “If someone wants to say the markets are in free fall, we’ll discuss it first,” he said, and the outcome is most likely to be a change in wording.
Hmm. Really, guys? Wow. Then why did my sister call me up 15 minutes ago saying "Yeah, you know, it's so bad... It's another Great Depression!"
I mean, I know journalists are curbing their use of scary words, but she must have gotten that idea somewhere...
Maybe it was this article:
Financial disaster to dwarf Lehman looms as AIG takes a pounding
September 16, 2008
or this one:
Obama, McCain battle over financial crisis
Reuters,
Mon Sep 22, 2008 7:53pm EDT
Oh, hell. Who knows. It could've been any of these.
or this one:
Obama, McCain battle over financial crisis
Reuters,
Mon Sep 22, 2008 7:53pm EDT
Oh, hell. Who knows. It could've been any of these.
