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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>March 16, 2009
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>Be objective: media <!--10 min-->
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Elizabeth Wilmot
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>
</TD><TD width=10>
</TD><TD vAlign=bottom>
Mr Burton (left), and other panellists, suggested that journalists tend to stick to safe financial predictions and have a tendency to listen to experts and not believe their own instincts. -- ST PHOTO: CHEW SENG KIM
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"-->THE economic meltdown was hardly a bolt from the blue but financial journalists failed to see the wood for the trees because they were deaf to alternative sources of information.
It was a collective failure that left Mr John Burton, Singapore bureau chief of the Financial Times, perplexed.
'I shake my head sometimes when people say that they didn't see this coming,' said Mr Burton, who was speaking at a panel discussion held at the Singapore Press Holdings on how the economic crisis was covered in the media.
The forecasts and predictions were there, it is just that many mainstream journalists missed them, he said.
'There is a lack of knowledge in financial history, even within the financial press. I think that anybody who's read a lot of financial history will realise that something big was brewing,' he added.
'If you really wanted to get a clearer idea of where the economy was going let's say a year or two years ago... the best sources of news were from economists who are posting their reports on the web.'
Mr Burton, and other panellists, suggested that journalists tend to stick to safe financial predictions and have a tendency to listen to experts and not believe their own instincts.
'There is this tendency not to accept very unpopular ideas, but to go with the stream in terms of how you go about reporting this,' he said. Read the full story in Tuesday's edition of The Straits Times.
I know best, OK? *hee*hee*
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>Be objective: media <!--10 min-->
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Elizabeth Wilmot
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>
</TD><TD width=10>
Mr Burton (left), and other panellists, suggested that journalists tend to stick to safe financial predictions and have a tendency to listen to experts and not believe their own instincts. -- ST PHOTO: CHEW SENG KIM
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"-->THE economic meltdown was hardly a bolt from the blue but financial journalists failed to see the wood for the trees because they were deaf to alternative sources of information.
It was a collective failure that left Mr John Burton, Singapore bureau chief of the Financial Times, perplexed.
'I shake my head sometimes when people say that they didn't see this coming,' said Mr Burton, who was speaking at a panel discussion held at the Singapore Press Holdings on how the economic crisis was covered in the media.
The forecasts and predictions were there, it is just that many mainstream journalists missed them, he said.
'There is a lack of knowledge in financial history, even within the financial press. I think that anybody who's read a lot of financial history will realise that something big was brewing,' he added.
'If you really wanted to get a clearer idea of where the economy was going let's say a year or two years ago... the best sources of news were from economists who are posting their reports on the web.'
Mr Burton, and other panellists, suggested that journalists tend to stick to safe financial predictions and have a tendency to listen to experts and not believe their own instincts.
'There is this tendency not to accept very unpopular ideas, but to go with the stream in terms of how you go about reporting this,' he said. Read the full story in Tuesday's edition of The Straits Times.
I know best, OK? *hee*hee*
