One of the more interesting features of running MB over the past three and a half years has been the hostility that greets it in the mainstream media. Whether it is the constant plagiarism or the wall of “doomsaying” allegations, the lack of regard for simple ethics has been as spectacular as it has been wrong.
Some of this is the result of MB’s exposure of the media’s shaky assumptions and inadequacies. A senior editor recently complained bitterly about MBs’ deconstruction of journalists (mis-represented as attacks). He was unable to fathom that blogs are the conscience of the media, a social meta-function that helps police the policemen, a role that determines blogging’s core offering.
But it’s more than that. The Australian business media is not an objective source of commentary on the economy. It is active interest in it and it is leveraged, very extensively, to those parts of the economy that have seen better days, the confidence economy that depends entirely upon households’ willingness to borrow and spend.
This is a losing battle, sadly, but the fight is an impressive one as media as diverse as the AFR to Crikey have jostled over the years to be cheerleader in chief.
The latest evidence of this fact is the iron ore story. The iron ore price is the single most important evolving input into the Australian economy today. The pace and duration of its fall will determine the fate of the economy next year (and yes, it could trigger recession).
It is also by far the richest vein for Australian business commentary and feature writing, with billionaires at risk of Shakespearean falls, huge assets in danger of liquidation, government’s undermined, collective dreams shattered. The human story is epic.
Yet, over the past week, as iron ore has crashed, it has barely registered at the AFR, with the odd headline disappearing quickly and trumped by the most prosaic of issues. Newscorp coverage has been a little better and so, oddly, has been coverage at the metropolitan dailies but not by much.
What we’ve mostly had are repeated press-release denials from mining CEOs and their courtiers.
It is possible that this is a failure of judgement by the nation’s editors. Their understanding of the role of iron ore in the economy is thin. Many also clearly operate on a principle of sympathetic coverage for Australian business in general, to attract advertising. Though why this would extent to mining, which doesn’t advertise at all, doesn’t make much sense. It beggars belief that the coverage is based only upon that. Some is surely an effort to not scare the horses, keep calm and carry on and all of that.
Whatever it is it is a collective failure given the swiftly deepening need for a real conversation about how to deal with the looming economic adjustment.
Anyway, we live in a more integrated world these days and, just as it was FTAlphaville that led coverage of the 2012 iron ore crash (outside of MB!) it is the FT that is rising to the occasion again today. It’s local journalist, Jamie Smythe, has written the feature that no local journalist either can or will, dragging the MB truth into the wider spotlight. Local editors and journalists should read it.
