hackbash

Anyone would think the gentlemen of the press wanted Northern Rock to go tits-up. At the very least there’s been some incautious language going around these last few days.

You can understand a bit of hysteria from people whose life-savings might be on the line, but isn’t it our job as journalists to get a grip on what’s actually happening and explain it to everyone else?

Apparently not. This article wasn’t the Telegraph’s finest hour, it seemingly slipping Angela Monaghan’s mind that the Financial Services Compensation Scheme protects the first £2,000 you’ve got invested in any regulated financial services firm, and 90% of the next £33,000.

The Daily Mail (currently) has it that the lender “has been pushed to the brink of extinction” by panicked consumers “desperate to take out their money” in “the worst banking crisis in living memory”. Granted, Black Wednesday may not have been a banking crisis in quite the same sense, but the collapse of Barings and the closure of BCCI both were.

Unbelievably, the Times, which has introduced a special Northern Rock navigation tab at the top of its site, still has it that Northern Rock has collapsed (left). Hello? One can perhaps assume that Northern Rock’s lawyers have got more important things on their minds at the moment, but surely somebody on the paper has taken libel training?

Say what you will about the BBC (ahem), it’s been at its best on this story. At the time I’m writing this, its latest article explains what triggered the crisis, how Northern Rock, the government and the Bank of England have reacted, the protection on offer to savers and the affect on NR’s share price.

Perhaps most amazingly, it manages to do so without once including the term ‘credit crunch’ in the body copy. Now that’s journalism.

Tags: bbc, day job, disasters, journalism, libel, news