November 03, 2001
From the desk of Mindles H. Dreck:Morality Tales, or et tu financial press?
I have not posted these last few days. I was attending a conference in Washington DC on developments in mass tort litigation. But I did accumulate some material.
I presented on a panel with a reporter from the Financial Times. She gave a short presentation along the lines of "how to interact with the press" when litigating or defending a mass tort. She made some broad generalizations about her fellow journalists that were surprising. Not surprising in fact, that is, but surprising in her directness. Basically, she indicated that in order to deal with the press you have to understand that they are ill-acquainted with details, are "like juries", have a "lack of familiarity with large (dollar) figures", and are mostly interested in "morality tales" about "protecting citizens form big corporations"and conveying "messages of outrage." The items in quotes are her exact words (I took notes once she got going). She also said we should understand that the financial press is "no different." Even the reporters at the Wall Street Journal, she said, have a very different outlook from the editorial page contributors.
Speaking of the press creating its own realities., you should look at this article from slate by William Saletan. Notice how the "war going badly" is made a self-fulfilling consensus created by reporters looking for a story? By using words like "haunting feeling" and "growing chorus", the press can refer to their own stories about the war in a way that sounds like they are referencing public opinion. As my co-panelist said, journalists view themselves as the "voice of the community". Perhaps it would be in the interests of some of these folks to get in touch with a larger community.
Posted by Mindles H. Dreck at November 3, 2001 11:08 AM | Technorati inbound links