Analysis of how The New York Times covered the Financial Crisis.

1. Coverage of the
Financial Crisis Seen in the
New York Times
Amy Joseph
Arielle Mellen
Kori Valentine
Peter Martin
Terra Neukam

2. Coverage of the Financial Crisis
• Overall, we think the New York Times
provided Americans with adequate
information needed for understanding the
Financial Crisis
• Leading up the crisis
• Peak of the crisis
• Aftermath

3. Coverage
Leading Up
to the Crisis
• September 23, 2007
• Use of visual/graphic
• Helps readers
visualize the
formation of the
housing bubble
• Lays out warnings
AND reassurances

4. • Engaging title
– “BORROWERS BEWARE: A Special Report; Suits Say
Unscrupulous Lending is Taking Homes from the Poor”
• Gives history as to how the 2008 bubble formed
and how it got to the point of bursting
“BORROWERS BEWARE…”
January 18, 1999 [Front Cover] Randy Kennedy
“But Delta [...] was one of the first to see a vast untapped resource
beyond the banks: the investment market. By converting loans into
securities and selling them to investors, finance companies could
generate a faster profit and have access to much more capital, and
make many more loans.”

5. • The terminology is simple enough for the
average citizen to understand and clearly
paints a picture of deceptive loans
“Mrs. Leonardi took out a $95,000 mortgage on her home in
Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, but she said later in a lawsuit against
Delta that she was never told she was signing loan papers and
believed she was signing investment papers.The papers described her
as a 68-year-old self-employed investor making $7,000 a month. In
fact, she was almost 73 and was living mostly on Social Security.”
“BORROWERS BEWARE…”
January 18, 1999 [Front Cover] Randy Kennedy

6. ''The actual facts,'' he said, ''are that Delta made a
loan that made sense at the time to a woman who
knew what she was doing at the time.'’
“Mrs. Leonardi remembered it differently. ''At no time
did any of these people explain to me that I was
signing papers for a mortgage on my home,'' she
stated in court documents. ''They merely pointed to
the lines, and I signed or initialed as directed. At the
time I was so weak that I couldn't walk without
assistance and could not read any of the papers that
I was asked to sign.’ “
“BORROWERS BEWARE…”
January 18, 1999 [Front Cover] Randy Kennedy

7. • Smooth and logical flow
• Supports his opinions
• Illustrates progression of problem
“But Mr. Greenspan wasn’t the only top official who put
ideology above public protection. Consider the press conference
held on June 3, 2003…”
“Blindly Into the Bubble”
December 21, 2007 [opinion column] Paul Krugman

8. “Reasonable estimates suggest
that more than 10 million
American families will end up
owing more than their homes are
worth, and investors will suffer
$400 billion or more in losses.”
“Meanwhile, during the bubble
years, the mortgage industry
lured millions of people into
borrowing more than they could
afford, and simultaneously
duped investors into investing
vast sums in risky assets
wrongly labeled AAA.
“Blindly Into the Bubble”
December 21, 2007 [opinion column] Paul Krugman

9. Then the Bubble Burst...

10. • Engaging language
• Uses simple language to discuss causes
• Balanced reporting; features shared viewpoint
of Martin Feldstein and Obama
“Worries that the Good Times were a Mirage”
January 23, 2008 [Business Section] David Leonhardt
“We could be sliding into an extraordinary recession.”
“The recent financial turmoil has many causes, but they are tied
to a basic fear that some of the economic successes of the last
generation may yet turn out to be a mirage.”
“So, how bad could this get?”

11. • Simple, engaging language
• International scope; explains larger implications
• Interactive features
“Financial Crisis Enters New Phase”
September 18, 2007 [Cover Page] Vikas Bajaj
“It’s like having a fire in a cinema,” said Hyun Song Shin, an economics
professor at Princeton. “Everybody is rushing to the door. You are
rushing to the door because everyone is rushing to the door. Clearly,
as a collective action, it is a disaster.”
“Some economists worry that a psychology of fear has gripped
investors, not only in the United States but also in Europe and Asia.
While investors’ decision to protect themselves may be perfectly
rational, the crowd behavior could cause a downward spiral with
broader ramifications.

12. • Style: draws reader in with compelling quote and thought
provoking introduction
• Lets Paulson defend his actions
“Struggling To Keep Up As The Crisis Raced On”
October 23, 2008 [Cover Page] Joe Nocera & Edmund L. Andrews
“I feel like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Who are these guys
that just keep coming? – Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr.”
“In an hour long interview with The New York Times, Mr. Paulson
defended Treasury’s actions, saying that he and his aides had done
everything they could, given the deep-rooted problems of financial
excess that had built up over the past decade.”
“I could have seen the subprime problem coming earlier,” he
acknowledged in the interview, quickly adding in his own defense,
“but I’m not saying I would have done anything differently.” - Mr.
Paulson

13. …but also
• Brings in opposing views that critique Paulson and helps
Americans understand the severity and breadth of situation
• Information pertains directly to the reader
• Gives one explanation why government did not bail out
Lehman Brothers
“For the equilibrium of the world financial system, this was a genuine error.” –
Christine Lagarde (France’s finance minister)
“The failure of Lehman [acted as] ‘a trigger’ for events leading to the global crash.” –
Frederic Oudea (Oudea (chief executive of Société Générale—one of France’s biggest
banks)
“I never once considered it appropriate to put taxpayer money on
the line in resolving Lehman Brothers,”
“When pressed about why it was legal for the Fed to lend billions of dollars to
Bear Stearns and A.I.G. but not Lehman Brothers, Mr. Paulson emphasized
that Lehman’s bad assets created “a huge hole” on its balance sheet. By
contrast, he said, Bear Stearns and A.I.G. had more trustworthy collateral.”
“Asked what he might have done better, Mr. Paulson replied, ‘I could have
made a better case to the public.’”

14. The Aftermath
• Website = an extremely useful resource
– “Overview”, Updated July 12, 2010
• Constantly being updated, thus
constantly informing readers
• Recognition that this is an ongoing crisis,
still important to Americans
–Use of multimedia
• Interactive features, videos, graphs, interviews
• “How the Government Dealt With Past
Recessions”

15. • Encourages understanding
• Search tool for terms & links in articles
• Links to books
• Links to external sources (Businessweek, The Washington Post,
PDFs, government documents)
• Ease and accessibility
• User friendly
• Everything in one place
• Highlights most relevant articles
from 2006 – 2010
The Aftermath

16. Overall Findings: Strengths
• Creative ways to draw readers in (especially
average citizens)
• Catchy introductions: “So, how bad could this get?”
• Common language, logical transitions/ conclusions
-Even in opinion columns [Paul Krugman]
• Metaphors: fire in a movie theater example
• Compelling images
• Graphs and interactive features
– 1960’s to 2001 example

17. Power of Images

18. Overall Findings: Strengths
• Appears in all sections of the paper
• Front page, Business Section, Editorials, Magazine
section
• Repeating authors; wide variety of authors
• Different writing styles
• Tons of reporters  excess amount of information
• Website
• www.NewYorkTimes.com

19. Overall Findings: Weaknesses
• Very dense/ not very concise
• Articles were very lengthy; took long to dissect
• Amount of information can be overwhelming
• Bombarding the citizens
• A search on Lexis Nexis did not bring up any
articles mentioning warnings from Jason
Thomas or Lawrence Lindsay. For example…

20. Overall Findings: Weaknesses
Jason Thomas sent charts to top white
house and treasury officials showing that
housing prices were wildly inflated and
bound to plunge—appropriate conditions
for foreclosure crisis (March 2007)
Lawrence Lindsey (2006) was the former
chief economics advisor and he told white
house officials that housing prices were
headed for a crash.