The Press Misunderstanding Money

Econintersect:  There are many examples of how the press doesn't understand confusionsignpostmoney, but one of the best discussions of this was recently given by former Reuters journalist Patrick Chalmers at the 2013 Positive Money Conference held in January in London.  After explaining what he thinks the important reasons are (listed below) he suggested that the path to improvement is being blazed by alternative media and citizen journalism.  He indicated that the public should monitor media, critique errors and omissions and lobby to improve coverage.
Follow up:
Here is a list of the reasons media doesn't understand money from Chambers:
  • Journalists are no smarter than the rest of us.
  • They flock to those in power – and he said, “power” can also be expressed in terms of huge amounts of wealth, rather than a formal position.
  • It’s not in the interests of those in power to speak to journalists about how money is made and its consequences.
  • They are under no pressure to understand from editors (who don’t understand either).
  • The audience isn’t clamouring to understand where money comes from. They might not even know that they do not know.
  • They are understaffed and under pressure, which leads to fast writing. This situation doesn’t lend itself to deep thought.
  • They are pack animals, there are few real contrarians.
  • They have their own ideology – which is often that of the paper.
  • Fear of backlash (flak).
Watch the video below of the Chambers presentation.

 
Some examples of very poor understanding of money in the media (and Washington) have been pointed out by Global Economic Intersection authors:

Hat tip to Banking & Monetary Reformers Group on LinkedIn.
Source: Econintersect