THE economic recession has dominated the news agenda for the past six months. Billions have been spent to bail out the banks, job losses have soared and there is no end in sight. The most alarming development for journalists has been the attempt by some to shoot the messenger. The question of media hype arose when BBC business editor Robert Peston appeared before the Treasury Select Committee and was accused of causing the run on Northern Rock by breaking the story that the bank was in crisis.
Peston has certainly been responsible for a number of exclusives during the economic crisis, but that is what a good journalist is supposed to do. He has sound contacts who provide solid stories. He is also one of the most informed commentators when it comes to the art of prediction.
However, the economic crisis has been an excuse to fill 24-hour news schedules with much vacuous content. It has become an easy story for a reporter to find a street where two or three shops have shut down and predict even more doom and gloom.
The tendency always to look on the dark side has become increasingly apparent. When supermarket chain Asda announced it was creating 7,000 new jobs, this was not given the same news prominence as the 1,000 jobs that had been lost on the same day.
There was a similarly warped approach to the 35,000 new posts created by the National Statistics Office in relation to the census. A recent 2 per cent rise in house prices – a key indicator of the state of the economy – was barely reported alongside the news of rising unemployment.
Economics minister Shriti Vadera was castigated for claiming to have seen some green shoots of recovery. She made the mistake of using the same as phrase as Conservative Chancellor Norman Lamont in the depths of the recession of the early 1990s.
A balance needs to be found in the reporting of the economic crisis. It is understandable that the Government should want to want to see any green shoots highlighted, since its whole economic strategy seems dedicated to getting us back to where we were before the downturn. Tax and interest rate cuts have been made on the premise that these will get people spending again, which will boost the economy. However, in an environment where every day is dominated by news about job losses and how much worse things are going to get, who in their right mind is going to embark on a spending spree?
An accusation thrown at Peston and other financial journalists concerned a comparison with the 1970s when it seems there was a similar banking calamity. The difference then was that nothing it leaked out, the whole thing was resolved behind closed doors and has only now come to light 30 years later.
However, people have a right to know what is being done with their money in order to make informed choices. Events have shown that they cannot rely on financial institutions to keep then in the picture. And that’s where Robert Peston and his colleagues come in. Nevertheless, balance is not always evident in coverage of the financial world and economic matters. Some of it is widely over the top.
Perhaps the most relevant questions, which are not being asked nearly enough, concern why the crisis and its causes were not perceived and understood earlier and whether those charged with getting the world out of the mess are actually up to the job and capable of ensuring no repetition of economic disaster in the future.
Paul Donovan
