Most people tend to think of the media as a means to inform the public. Not the D&C. They see themselves as a vehicle for delivering messages they believe we need to hear for our own good. Whether or not that is the truth is irrelevant.

Take the opinions plummed from the local pool of “experts,” that the Bear Stearns deal isn’t going to have any effect on Rochester at all. Oh, heavens, no! We’re all going to be fine, because we all live in the Monroe County Smug Bubble, unlike all those poor bastards that live elsewhere.

Keep in mind that only 2% of the total national mortgage market is in foreclosure. What does 2% of the Rochester/Monroe County market look like? Well, not much at all. Yet 2% of the nation-wide market is enough to cause a recession (”or at least near, a recession,” in the words of the D&C), so what does that same 2% do to our economy here?

Well, that kind of question is just not acceptable to the D&C. I keep trying to answer that question, lacking as I do the resources of the D&C, but they patently refuse to cover the story at all. Rather, they’d prefer to hear from people who speak of “The Market” as though it was some sort of god, rather than the collective actions of fallible men:

Experts: Area has no bubble to burst | democratandchronicle.com | Democrat and Chronicle

“This is the market’s way of letting other (investment) firms know they should avoid the excesses of Bear Stearns,” Conboy said. “They shouldn’t play the way Bear Stearns played.”