[JOURNALISM] The Boston Globe : I plead guilty to journalistic incompetence'
'...
Robert J. Samuelson is an economics reporter in Washington.
BYLINE: By Robert J. Samuelson
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
BODY:
I plead guilty to journalistic incompetence for ignoring what may be one of the decade's big stories: the year 2000
problem. Among technical types, it's shortened to the Y2K problem and refers to the dangers of computers that
can't recognize the new century. Economist Edward Yardeni of Deutsche Morgan Grenfell rates the odds that it
will trigger a deep recession at 60 percent. He fears something ranking with the 1974-75 slump, the second-worst
since World War II.
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We in the press have not taken this seriously. In my ineptness, I have plenty of company: The New York Times,
The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post (until recent weeks), Time, Newsweek, and Business Week, just to
mention a few news giants. Despite occasional stories, we haven't portrayed this as a truly threatening development
that may not be "fixed" on time. Our failure amplifies the larger lapses of political leaders.
President Clinton and Vice President Gore love photo ops with students at computers. But they've virtually
neglected the Y2K problem. As a result, many agencies lag badly in converting their computers. The Federal
Aviation Administration's air-traffic control network has 250 computer systems, using 50 computer languages with
about 23 million lines of software code. It didn't begin taking the Y2K problem seriously until mid-1997. By early
1998, less than half the system was converted. The FAA claims it will be fully ready by mid-1999; the General
Accounting Office is skeptical.
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Among private companies, readiness also seems spotty. The head of General Motors's information systems recently
told Fortune magazine that the company is working feverishly to rectify "catastrophic problems" at its plants.
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But Y2K may matter much more than Microsoft. I lean toward alarmism simply because all the specialists I
recently contacted - people actually involved with fixing the computers - are alarmed. And everyone believes
progress abroad is slower than in the United States.
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