from OurFuture.org:
Why CNBC Is Bad For The EconomyBy Isaiah J. Poole
March 11th, 2009 - 10:20am ET
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Jon Stewart deserves a medal for finally getting the public talking about the ugly, dangerous truth about the leading outlet for business and economic news coverage, CNBC: It often inflames, but rarely informs.
In fact, CNBC has turned inflaming into a business strategy. The New York Times this week reported that CNBC is encouraging its hosts "to speak their minds, making the line between reporter and commentator almost indistinguishable at times."
The cable channel apparently thinks there is money to be made as the mouth of that segment of Wall Street that wants President Obama's economic recovery plan to fail, in the hopes that a new conservative political regime will reignite the drunken orgy of greed that was so much fun for Wall Street before the rest of us got stuck with the hangover.
While much of the attention in the back-and-forth between Stewart and CNBC has focused on the network's high-profile and high-wattage stock picker, Jim Cramer, Cenk Uygur's commentary today in The Huffington Post is right that the attention on Cramer's schtick misses the point:
The real problem is their reporting -- or lack thereof. The CNBC reporters and anchors make the Bush press corps look like draconian inquisitors. They are obsessed with access. This is a problem with all of the media, and something Jon Stewart points out all the time. But it is particularly acute at CNBC (and all other business news channels).
I have a close friend who works at a business news station -- and here is the worst kept secret in show business -- it's all about the access. If you piss off the CEOs or the companies, you're going to get a call from your boss. You have jeopardized our relationship with them!
That is very thinly disguised code words for -- don't ever say anything negative about a company we cover otherwise your job is in the trouble. The message is clear -- go along to get along. This isn't journalism. It's public relations by another name.
CNBC never did any exposés about the enormous risks these financial companies took. They never exposed the insanity of the derivatives market. And they never told their audience that the executives of these companies have been robbing their shareholders blind. Because they didn't see that as their job. They saw their job as doing whatever it took to keep Wall Street happy and playing ball with them.
They were part of the broken system. There was no journalism going on at CNBC. That is what our underlying complaint is. That is what CNBC continues to miss to this day as they try to defend themselves by saying their words were taken out of context. The problem was the context!
I have been a regular CNBC watcher for most of its 20-year history, and while the network has occasionally allowed progressive critics of Wall Street and GOP policies to appear on its programs, the network failed in the run-up to the financial crisis to engage in critical investigation of the behavior of either Wall Street financial institutions or their enablers in the Bush administration. Hand-wringing documentaries after the fact don't count. .........(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2009031111/why-cnbc-bad-economy
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