Corporate Media "Embedded" with Wall Street as Economic Crisis Hit
Interview with Danny Schechter, media critic and filmmaker, conducted by Scott Harris
As widespread anger still lingers about $165 million in bonuses paid to employees at the failed insurance giant AIG -- bailed out by more than $170 billion in taxpayer funds -- another, larger set of bonuses is being investigated. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Democrat of Ohio, chairman of the domestic policy subcommittee of the House Oversight and Government Reform panel, has opened an inquiry into about $3.6 billion in bonuses paid to Merrill Lynch employees, 22 times larger than bonuses paid by AIG. The bonuses were set in December, after the government allocated $10 billion in bailout funds to help save the firm from collapse by brokering its sale to Bank of America.
Americans generally were taken by surprise when the economic collapse struck last fall. Much of the blame, critics say, can be placed on Congress, which deregulated the industry then turned a blind eye to reckless casino games played with subprime mortgages and credit default swaps. But the corporate media also played a pivotal role with its decision not to aggressively report on these dodgy financial practices, which triggered the current economic meltdown.
The business media's cozy relationship with Wall Street movers and shakers was briefly exposed when the Daily Show's Jon Stewart skewered the CNBC business cable channel. Stewart bluntly criticized CNBC's Jim Cramer, Rick Santelli and others for their uncritical reporting of Wall Street's dangerous scams and fawning coverage of corporate billionaires. Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with filmmaker and author Danny Schechter, who examines the corporate media's failure to investigate Wall Street's irresponsible schemes, which brought on the economic collapse.
Danny Schechter, co-founder of MediaChannel.org is the author of, "Plunder: Investigating our Economic Calamity and the Sub Prime Scandal." Read Danny's News Dissector Blog online at www.mediachannel.org
Related links:
* "In Debt We Trust" film documentary at www.Indebtwetrust.com
* "Credit Crisis: How Did We Miss It?", British Journalism Review, March 2009
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