Ignored,uninterested,and the blame game: How The New York Times,Marketplace,and TheStreet distanced themselves from preventing the 2007–2009 financial crisis

Abstract

This article relies on interviews with business journalists at The New York Times, Marketplace public radio, and TheStreet to understand how journalists retrospectively considered their responsibilities following the 2007–2009 financial crisis. Watchdog journalism is looked at through a variety of scholarly perspectives to understand the disconnect between theory and practice as journalists across all these outlets distance themselves from the events leading up to the crisis. This article provides the first account of how business journalists in the USA responded to the crisis, and the data suggest two important concerns: the first, a serious lack of media accountability; the second, the need for clearer normative expectations for watchdog journalism.