For one, the story was one of the first in the most recent wave of coverage, and came before John McCain’s shot over the bow brought the issue to such prominence. This clarity of vision points to a strength not just in this segment, but in Planet Money podcasts more generally. Because NPR is not one of the financial-press mainstays, it doesn’t need to break the bank to give us detail after detail about the financial meltdown and bailout. That frees it up to look at larger issues like the SEC’s failures. (To give another example, Planet Money focused on the power shift the bailout could entail several days before such an article appeared on the front page of The New York Times.)
This brings us to our second point. In addition to thinking big, This American Life and NPR offer analysis that everyone can understand, even if they don’t know what a credit-default swap is. The SEC piece even uses humor, a quality that rarely graces the business news.
With the leap to the front pages, business news suddenly has a much broader audience. In fact, the business press might even consider this difficult time an opportunity to bring more readers into the fold. But financial journalism is bit intimidating for neophytes—especially these days, when many articles require a glossary of terms.
What This American Life and Planet Money provide is business news for smart, but not necessarily initiated, listeners. This isn’t to say Chicago Public Radio and NPR are offering Business News for Dummies. Their strength is accessible coverage that is worth listening to even if you have been following the business press.
We loved This American Life and NPR News’s Giant Pool of Money episode several months ago, and the same folks are behind this new coverage. The average Planet Money podcast is less produced, but what the podcasts lack in panache, they make up for in substance.
Like that piece on the power shift a bailout could entail. Or a discussion with a major banking lobbyist on what his clients want most from a bailout. Or an interview with a prominent economist who describes alternatives to the bailout.
This American Life plans another financial episode this weekend. We predict it will be worth a listen.
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WITHER WSJ?
Excuse me -- for seven (7) years, "The Wall Street Journal" editorial page has been raining thunder and lightning on Fannie/Freddie and their (1) lack of capital reserves and (2) "too big to fail" market positions.
How that could have been left out is beyond me.
Posted by Russ on Fri 3 Oct 2008 at 05:53 PM
How that could have been left out is beyond me.
It doesnt fit the narrative that guys like Longobardi are trying to cram down our throats.
Posted by Carl Stevens on Fri 3 Oct 2008 at 05:58 PM
We don't know about master narratives, but we'd just point out that our piece is not about Fannie and Freddie or the credit crisis broadly speaking, but about Christopher Cox and his record since arriving at the SEC in 2005. Since then, The Wall Street Journal has done a few notable stories on him and his agency, which we mentioned in the piece.
Posted by Elinore Longobardi on Mon 6 Oct 2008 at 02:03 PM