Ryan Chittum takes a look at two stories about delays in writing new financial regulations, and concludes that the Murdochization of the Wall Street Journal’s news pages is proceeding apace:
The Journal’s frame is that Wall Street is upset over the delay of derivatives rules and that it’s causing “uncertainty.”….The Times, though, points out that it’s Wall Street that is delaying the rules.
….This is a prime example of the Times out-Journaling the Journal, giving us the context and background we need to get our arms around what’s really going on. The WSJ misleadingly presents the story almost as if it’s a natural disaster—delays that just happen for no reason or, if you read between the lines, government incompetence….Which just goes to show you, as we’ve seen before with the Journal, that “uncertainty” is a red flag that an argument is almost surely utterly bogus corporate PR.
The Journal’s news pages used to be first rate. There’s still plenty of good stuff there, but hackery has been advancing steadily ever since Rupert Murdoch bought the paper and started installing his own retainers in top positions. It’s pretty sad.
