The Importance of Obama's Scientific Integrity Memorandum

A bit off topic, but here is the mother of all false balance stories from the Columbia Journalism Review:

What role did the press play in diffusing financial warnings in the years leading up to the current crisis?

We canât answer that question in its entiretyâespecially not in one postâbut we can offer an example for your consideration: the pressâs supremely insufficient response to an important 1994 report by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, warning about the dangers of derivativesâthose largely unregulated financial instruments that have played such a central role in the current collapse...

Where was the press in all of this? Generally abdicating its imperative to shape the storyâto sift through disparate pieces of information and put them in their placesâand employing instead a false evenhandedness.

Let us explain.

Some articles merely summarized the report, avoiding the issue of significance entirely. But often reporters brought in opposing voices. That is standard, of course, and not a problem in and of itself. The problem is that reporters seemed at a loss over what weight to give opposition to the report. The result was that they gave it equal timeâor more. And so the GAO, which had spent two years making itself an expert on derivatives, became just one voice among many, only to be gradually shouted down by a persistent opposition.

In reality, the GAO was the authority here, and unlike many of its opponents, didnât have a horse in the race. Some opponents of the bill called the document politically biased in an effort to discredit it. But the problem with that accusation, which seems to have been aimed at Democrats, a few of whose members were at the forefront of the call for legislative action, is thatâwhile solutions may have differed across party linesâconcern over derivatives was not entirely limited to one party.

Thanks, conservative "New Class"!!