Fox Business News appears to get the bailout transparency picture. The News Corp. business news cable network, home of beautiful people with flowing hair, says it’s filed a Freedom of Information Act request asking which banks are benefiting from more the $2 trillion in Federal Reserve loans and what collateral they’re giving in return:
So Fox Business has begun actions to force the U.S. government and the Federal Reserve to share information about all these bailouts with you. If in 20 days the Treasury Department has not responded to our Freedom of Information requests, we are going to sue the Treasury for that information. The government and the Fed have no right to keep this information from you, the very people who are being forced to pay for these bailouts.
It’s a FOIA-loiya’ bailout!
Seriously, though, if you’re a news organization, and you’re ever going to file a FOIA, now would be the time.
FoxBiz, of course, follows Bloomberg LP, which on Friday sued in federal court, Manhattan, after the Fed effectively denied (it wouldn’t respond) to Bloomberg News requests last spring.
Who’s next? Me, I’m hoping this has already been done by another News Corp. unit.
It will be great to see Fox Business News take a greater leadership role and even help Fox News Channel salvage what's left of its credibility as a media outlet from being a Bush-mouthpiece.
Of course, there are enough politicians blaming the media for their own failures, as I wrote about in http://www.imran.com/media/blog/2008/11/playing-blame-game.html
Imran
IMRAN.TV
Posted by Imran Anwar on Fri 14 Nov 2008 at 02:09 PM
Interesting concept and site. You'll have to keep us up to date on how things progress over time.
------------
johnpetersen
MLS
Posted by johnpetersen on Mon 24 Nov 2008 at 02:04 PM
Thanks, John. We'll do our best.
--Dean
Posted by Dean Starkman on Mon 24 Nov 2008 at 03:12 PM