A Barometer for Financial Journalism

There's been a lot of debate in financial journalism as to whether the media did a good or lousy job in covering the prelude to the current financial crisis. Well, here's one current. ongoing issue that is a good litmus test of the current coverage: mark to market.

So we have the good (Floyd Norris in the New York Times, Felix Salmon in Portfolio, ), the bad (this column in TheStreet.com) and the utterly brainless (Steve Forbes and Newt Gingrich in Forbes). Forbes has also sipped from the naked shorting kool aid, as has his mark-to-market allies at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Makes sense, as both involve blaming parties other than the bankers for the mess they're in.

UPDATE: Ryan Chittum at CJR Daily's Audit column says that the media is rising to the occasion and exposing the mark-to-market snake oil salesmen.

© 2009 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.