A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days

One need only look at QandO's demolition job on the New York Times's effort to pin the blame concerning the current housing and financial crisis on the Bush Administration's supposedly "hands-off approach to regulation." As QandO points out, there were a whole host of people to blame on this issue--including Democrats who denied that there were any problems with Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, even as Republicans sought to have more oversight of the two government agencies.

The Times needs to read Steve Horwitz as well before going off half-cocked about the supposed dangers of the market. I don't expect it to do so--its easier to beat up on scapegoats than it is to face facts. But the rise of the alternative media is tied directly and explicitly to the failure of mainstream media outlets like the New York Times to process facts and its consistent willingness to allow its editorial board to dictate to its audience what we should believe the facts of a certain story to be.

Of course, this promises to have an awful effect on policy formulation. Misinformation does not lead to good choices when it comes to creating and implementing policy and at a time when we are facing a severe economic downturn and financial crisis, access to the correct information is crucial to our ability to right our economic ship.

Too bad, then, that the Times made it that much tougher to access and utilize complete and accurate information on the financial crisis and the causes behind it. The sentiments in its story were better expressed on the editorial page, if anywhere at all. Ironically enough, by choosing to substitute ideology for facts, the Times has proven itself as intellectually sloppy and dishonest as it presumes the Bush Administration to be.