Bringing the Wall St. crisis to Main St.

Danny Schechter: Economic crisis is ruining people's
lives, the media has failed to tell the full story

The Real News

Danny Schechter the "News Dissector" tells
The Real News that the Wall St. crisis is about to become part of the political
debate in America, from Hillary Clinton slamming money brokers to the FBI
investigating mortgage fraud. As well, the media is also to blame for ignoring
the problems until the market melted down.

Danny Schechter, "The
News Dissector," is a former network TV producer, radio newscaster, and
edits MediaChannel.org. He has written nine books on media themes. His latest,
Squeezed: America As The Bubble Bursts was inspired by his latest film, In Debt
We Trust: America Before The Bubble Bursts

Transcript:

DANNY SCHECHTER, MEDIA CRITIC AND FILMMAKER: The Wall Street crisis so far has
not been part of the political debate in America. Well, that's about to
change. The New York Sun reported that Wall
Street is outraged because Hillary Rodham Clinton told an audience in Indiana that it was time
to denounce the moneygrubbers on Wall Street and hold them responsible for the
recession.

(CLIP BEGINS)

Indianapolis,
IN
May 4, 2008

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (D): Why don't we hold the Wall
Street money brokers responsible for their role in this recession? And I stood
up to the oil companies. I voted against Dick Cheney's energy bill.

(CLIP ENDS)

Now, Wall Street responded. The Clinton
campaign qualified it and said they only meant moneylenders. If they had wanted
to get more resonance, they might have said moneychangers, you know, as in the Temple. But they didn't
say that. The point is that there is an awareness now in mainstream America that
Wall Street and what happened on Wall Street has had an impact on their lives,
on not only foreclosures but rising prices and general economic insecurity that
so many people feel as joblessness increases and the recession gets actually
deeper. So Hillary Clinton inadvertently, even though she was supported by Wall
Street, has triggered this, and I believe that we'll see a lot more commentary
on Wall Street's responsibility for this crisis. I myself just a year ago was
talking not about subprime but subcrime, suggesting that it was time for a full
investigation and a prosecution of criminal activity on Wall Street. Earlier
this week, on May 5, it was reported that the federal government has broadened
its investigation, criminal investigation, into the mortgage frauds that were
part of the subprime scandal. There's a lot more attention being paid to this
whole crisis 'cause it's affecting so many people. Three million families now
are said to be in danger of foreclosure. That's a 50-state Katrina. Serious,
serious problem. And so protests are starting. I was with a group of 300
homeowners organized by NACA, the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, who
actually invaded the lobby at Bear Stearns protesting the bailout, chanting,
you know, "Main Street,
not Wall Street."

(CLIP BEGINS)

March 26, 2008

CHANTING: Main Street,
not Wall Street.

(CLIP ENDS)

While I was there, CNBC, the business channel, was trying to interview some of
the homeowners, and they didn't want to talk to them.

(CLIP BEGINS)

March 26, 2008

CNBC REPORTER: —protesting right now?

PROTESTOR: No.

SCHECHTER: Why hasn't the media, your media, CNBC, focused its concerns on the
homeowners, on the people who have been the victims in this crisis? You pay all
your attention to the CEOs. You're only really interested in the people at the
top, which is your, you know, elite audience. You're not interested in the
people who are actually suffering in this story.

(CLIP ENDS)

Clearly this is a problem not just of the investment banks but also of the
media, which failed to cover this crisis when it was happening. When these
investment houses were making a fortune, billions of dollars, you know, on
subprime lending, actually ripping off the poorest people in America to enrich the richest people in America, there
was almost no coverage. It didn't start until the market melted down in August
2007. So Americans had no idea that this was actually happening. And as a
consequence, people are having a delayed shock at what's actually happening to
them in their lives—the rising gas prices, the rising food prices, the
insecurity that everybody is facing about work, about savings, about what their
money is worth or going to be worth, their 401k retirement plans, and the like.
In other words, what started as manipulations and maneuvers on Wall Street has
now moved to Main Street
and will become the dominant issue of the year. There's no question of that.