Department of Justice. If consumers don care, well, they better. As the New York Times explains it, Libor used to determine the borrowing costs for trillions of dollars of financial products, including mortgages, credit cards and student loans. Which is why Spitzer saying it all comes back to Libor.
It just doesn all come back to ABC and NBC. According to a study completed last week by Media Matters for America, the evening-news shows for those two networks Abercrombie and Fitch dedicated zero minutes of coverage to the scandal from June 27 through July 12. Not even a mention.
Not only are those networks unmotivated to talk about Libor on their key newscasts, they unmotivated to talk about how unmotivated they are to talk about Libor on their key newscasts. Inquiries to both networks fetched a call-back only from ABC, which confirmed the veracity of the Media Matters findings but declined to comment on them. NBC News hasn responded to several e-mails on the matter.
Is this a scandal empanada financial dough and a little media filling? Hate to jump to conclusions. A look at the fossil record of Nightly News coverage reveals some great topical choices, including a story on massive droughts, stuff on the turmoil in Syria and many other topics. There was also a segment on July 6 titled President George W. Bush and former first lady Nancy Reagan celebrate birthdays, for which a story on Libor could simply not have been substituted. Gotta do birthdays.
As for ABC, much of the same. Coverage of the all-important presidential race, the Abercrombie and Discount Abercrombie and Fitch Fitch life-threatening heat wave and the divorce of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, plus, of course, sharks!!!!! Can bump complicated, clunky old Libor for fins protruding from the ocean.
