Amount the Lehman Brothers court examiner spent to investigate that single company: $38 million.
Amount Congress has budgeted for the Angelides Commission to investigate the entire crisis: $8 million.
— Let’s outsource this item’s media criticism to the Onion News Network, which has about as insightful a take on cable news as you’ll ever see:
(h/t Greg Mitchell)
— And while we’re outsourcing media criticism, make sure to check out PR guy Eric Starkman’s (no relation to Audit Director of Communications Dean Starkman) post on what’s wrong with journalism leadership. It’s the Peter Principle, he says:
Mainstream journalism is in desperate need of radical visionaries, yet the industry continues to be led by people who are part of the problem rather than a source for the solution.
And while it’s a bit of misdirection to say “no journalist could have predicted the meltdown” (no kidding), this is certainly true:
Most business journalists tend to mime conventional wisdom of the day, which explains why the leaders of Enron, Worldcom, and Tyco were heralded in newspaper and magazine cover stories before those companies blew up.
And Starkman names names!
(h/t Chris Roush)
Ryan Chittum is a former Wall Street Journal reporter, and deputy editor of The Audit, CJR’s business section. If you see notable business journalism, give him a heads-up at rc2538@columbia.edu. Follow him on Twitter at @ryanchittum.