The role of the British media in the run-up to the current financial crisis has been scrutinised during a debate entitled "Why did nobody see it coming?" organised by Polis and The Media Society and held at the London School of Economics. Amongst the speakers were Evan Davis from the BBC, Alex Brummer of the Daily Mail, the Financial Times's Gillian Tett, and the Liberal Democrat deputy leader Vince Cable.

A variety of reasons were discussed for the lack of foresight in the financial press, one of which was pressure from the "financially powerful City PR lobby". Cable revealed that as far back as 2002, when he first began to report signs of trouble in the economy, he was invited to friendly PR lunches where they "appealed to me as a patriot to rally behind the city... It was the way of this industry to wrap itself in the Union Jack". Also cited was the reader "obsession" with falling house prices, which lead newspapers to focus on this over other industry issues, and a lack of experience amongst financial journalists born and raised during the "boom years".

David didn't agree with the excuse of City PR pressure, believing it is "the job of journalists to withstand the pressures of the public relations industry". However, neither does he believe that it was entirely the role of the financial press to predict the imminent downturn, "It's not the job of the media necessarily to pioneer a view that no-one else is taking... The press, in any way, didn't see it coming...but I think that's entirely forgivable." Whilst not believing the media should have predicted the crisis, he concedes that they should have given more coverage to those dissenting voices warning of troubled times ahead.

Over in the US, a survey of 100 top members of the business and financial media carried out in January by Abrams Research revealed a relatively optimistic view of the crisis. Of those questioned, 57% believed it would be over by June 2010 and 70% couldn't see it turning into a full-scale depression. Interestingly, whilst 62% admitted that the media "dropped the ball" on the financial crisis, only 2% believed that the media is to blame. One of those surveyed said, "The whole purpose of regulation is to restrain the excesses of the banks and the consumers. The media try to do that as well, but it's not actually what we get paid for."

The general consensus on both sides of the Atlantic therefore appears to be that whilst the media could and possibly should have been more effective in how they reported financial problems and possibilities in the months before crisis hit, prediction isn't actually their role. At the "Why did nobody see it coming?" debate, Professor Willem Buiter, chair in European political economy at LSE said, "I don't blame the media - they're not supposed to see it coming. Prophets, scientists - they're supposed to see things coming."

Source: Press Gazette