

Slate: Why You've Stopped Watching CNBC - yu
http://www.slate.com/id/2224257

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BearOfNH
I click off CNBC when they "interview" corporate executives, who then proceed
to flak their own companies with virtually no attention to the questions being
asked. Advertising-as-news is worth my time?

I get annoyed at CNBC when they report government statistics as if they were
quoting scripture. They ignore the constant upward revisions in last week's
unemployment data, which happens every week and makes this week's losses look
less bad. And why they don't report reconstructed M3 as many web sites have
done lately (hint: it's plunging). While it may sound arcane it's a lot more
important than hearing the prewritten patter of the CEO of Amalgamated
Cowbells.

Several months ago there were guests on CNBC laughing at Peter Schiff for
suggesting an imminent mortgage meltdown. This was soon followed by the
mortgage meltdown. I often wonder why CNBC doesn't show that clip (available
on YouTube) to those same laughing guests and give them the opportunity to
explain what was so funny. (Are Schiff's current predictions worthwhile? I
don't know, but I'm not laughing. Nor am I laughing at Abby Cohen's rosy
scenarios. Predicting markets is hard. Shooting the messenger is stupid.)

There's a show on CNBC at 5pm Eastern called _Fast Money_ which, 6-12 months
ago, was a real hoot. It was sort of a McLaughlin Group for the stock market,
with a host and rotating panel of guests each of whom was some sort of money
manager or pro trader, with no allegiance to anything except profit. The top
two (IMO) were host Dylan Ratigan and panelist Jeff Macke, both of whom were
evicted when their contracts were up. Evidently the CNBC execs prefer serving
financial pabulum instead of hard reporting replete with finger shaking. One
wonders if this is entirely voluntary.

Yes, you can have political differences (e.g., Liesman vs. Santelli). Every
viewer is used to (occasionally heated) political argument. But when it comes
to the financial equivalent of Woodward and Bernstein, CNBC has taken a pass
... and the audience appears to have noticed.

