Rob Wells University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism College Park, Md. (443) 591-1189
[email protected] July 30, 2015 A Strong Sense of Outrage: Stan Strachan, The National Thrift News and The Savings and Loan Crisis Abstract: This paper examines how a small mortgage industry newspaper, the National Thrift News, defied the trade press norms and served as an aggressive industry watchdog. It first reported on the 1987 Keating Five scandal, an iconic political money story where five U.S. Senators pressured regulators to go easy on a wealthy campaign contributor. The National Thrift News excelled at a time when mainstream media offered lackluster coverage of the savings and loan financial crisis. A Strong Sense of Outrage: Stan Strachan and National Thrift News 2 A Strong Sense of Outrage: Stan Strachan, The National Thrift News and The Savings and Loan Crisis Introduction One of the iconic episodes of the 1980s savings and loan crisis was the Keating Five scandal, when five top U.S. senators sought to pressure federal banking regulators to ease up on Charles Keating, a campaign contributor who ran a failing savings institution. The news didn’t appear first in a major newspaper, national magazine or on a televised investigative program. A small mortgage trade industry newspaper, the 10,000- circulation National Thrift News, broke the news. 1 In the U.S., the trade press has faced criticism due to its close relationship to and economic reliance on the industry it covers (Hollifield, 1997). Mainstream journalists have dismissed the trade press for failing to take a tough, watchdog stance in their reporting, and for failing to frame their journalism in the broader context of society.