Post by Teddy Bear on Nov 23, 2007 20:38:09 GMT
The Editors Blog today, tells of the subsequent embarassment of the Newsnight team after reporting that the Dow Jones in New York was down for that day, when in fact it had been closed for Thanksgiving.
So how do these 'professionals' plan to prevent further mishaps of this kind? By putting the responsibility of the viewer to check whether the market was open for that day. From now on the phrase 'MAKE SURE YOU CHECK THE AMERICAN MARKETS ARE NOT ON A HOLIDAY' will appear on the page, thus obviating their responsibility to do it for us.
How difficult it must be for them, and how easy they justify their incompetence. yet they have no hesitation to taking any company or person to task in their mealy mouthed and arrogant way for operating less than 100%
If somebody is operating international business news, and they are not aware that the stock market is closed abroad because of a national holiday, then they hardly inspire confidence in what they report - EVER. Then to put the onus on their public, who are forced anyway to pay their wages, to do their job for them, is completely insulting and contemptuous.
Morons - for so many reasons!
So how do these 'professionals' plan to prevent further mishaps of this kind? By putting the responsibility of the viewer to check whether the market was open for that day. From now on the phrase 'MAKE SURE YOU CHECK THE AMERICAN MARKETS ARE NOT ON A HOLIDAY' will appear on the page, thus obviating their responsibility to do it for us.
How difficult it must be for them, and how easy they justify their incompetence. yet they have no hesitation to taking any company or person to task in their mealy mouthed and arrogant way for operating less than 100%
If somebody is operating international business news, and they are not aware that the stock market is closed abroad because of a national holiday, then they hardly inspire confidence in what they report - EVER. Then to put the onus on their public, who are forced anyway to pay their wages, to do their job for them, is completely insulting and contemptuous.
Morons - for so many reasons!
Market sentiment
Peter Barron 23 Nov 07, 04:53 PM
The history of Newsnight's nightly markets update has not always been a happy one. On Thursday we reported that in New York the "Dow Jones was substantially down amidst more credit crunch fears". That's odd, many of you told us, as - being Thanksgiving - Wall Street's finest were on a day-off. Our economics editor Stephanie Flanders was mortified - "unforgivable and embarrassing" was her verdict.
This is, I am ashamed to say, not the first time we have made such a mistake. The markets information is almost always the last thing we do on Newsnight and in the scramble of a particularly lively programme last night we neglected to notice that the US markets were shut and blithely reported the day before's figure. I'm sorry and I'm determined this won't happen again.
A couple of years ago we thought one way of avoiding problems with the markets was to abolish the spot altogether, but the outrage then means we won't try that again. Instead, we have inserted a note in the markets page which will read for ever more:
MAKE SURE YOU CHECK THE AMERICAN MARKETS ARE NOT ON A HOLIDAY
Peter Barron is editor of Newsnight
Peter Barron 23 Nov 07, 04:53 PM
The history of Newsnight's nightly markets update has not always been a happy one. On Thursday we reported that in New York the "Dow Jones was substantially down amidst more credit crunch fears". That's odd, many of you told us, as - being Thanksgiving - Wall Street's finest were on a day-off. Our economics editor Stephanie Flanders was mortified - "unforgivable and embarrassing" was her verdict.
This is, I am ashamed to say, not the first time we have made such a mistake. The markets information is almost always the last thing we do on Newsnight and in the scramble of a particularly lively programme last night we neglected to notice that the US markets were shut and blithely reported the day before's figure. I'm sorry and I'm determined this won't happen again.
A couple of years ago we thought one way of avoiding problems with the markets was to abolish the spot altogether, but the outrage then means we won't try that again. Instead, we have inserted a note in the markets page which will read for ever more:
MAKE SURE YOU CHECK THE AMERICAN MARKETS ARE NOT ON A HOLIDAY
Peter Barron is editor of Newsnight