Some of my favorite news people got their start as sports reporters. This may seem surprising, because I am not at all into sports. However, it’s not the content, but being faithful to the facts.
You can’t spin the outcome of a ballgame. You can’t say the Yankees won when they ended the 9th down 3 runs and expect to have anybody listen to you tomorrow. You can have opinions about bad calls all you like, but there’s no changing the raw facts of the game: x runs were made; pivotal moment in a certain inning; which players scored; batting averages; they would have played better if it weren’t for the wind.
Some aspects of the financial news should be just as factual as sports news: the Dow went up/down 100 points; the Fed changed the discount rate; National Gift Wrap reported a profit of $X million; the latest labor statistics. There is still plenty of room for opinion, for example why a stock is moving today or speculation about the future.
I have gotten very frustrated with CNBC lately. I was frustrated some weeks before Mr. Santelli decided to stop talking about what was happening on the trading floor and start talking about us “losers” and “Chicago Tea Parties”. Mr. Santelli’s rant is merely a symptom of what has been going on all across the daily programming.
For the record, just 8 years ago CNBC had the absolute best, most balanced coverage of 9/11 out there. Their people were literally on the ground as close to ground zero as you could reasonably be and live to tell the tale. They managed to stay calm and report facts even as they watched the destruction with the certain knowledge that people they personally knew were dead.
Viewers used to be able to count on CNBC for useful economic and financial news with an appropriate level of commentary: XYZ stock is down 10% because of rumors they won’t meet sales goals; a certain sector is up because of anticipated economic conditions; bonds are up in a flight to quality. Sure, they had their stock-pickers come talk about their favorite stock picks in what amounted to a barely legal pump and dump. However, anybody sitting down with Mark Haines or Tyler Mathisen needed to be aware that failing to answer questions would not be tolerated.
Lately, however, the morning is dominated by Larry Kudlow and other So-Conservative-It-Hurts types talking about how bad it would be for the country to actually change course and deal with our problems. Oh, we can’t tax the wealthy (even though the country needs the money) because they won’t invest anymore. Oh, we can’t spend money repairing roads and bridges (before they simply fall down) because deficit spending is bad (except when Mr. Bush did it). Oh, we must let the free market take care of our health care mess (despite the fact that hasn’t worked so far) or else! In short, everything the people want the government to do is wrong and — as Jon Stewart so hilariously lampooned — the DJIA proves it.
Nope, the Dow couldn’t possibly be down because Wall Street’s supply of fairy dust has been taken away and we must now look upon economic reality as if it were nothing more complicated than the score of last night’s ball game.
At least everybody’s favorite financial madman, Jim Cramer, has the decency to say “I think X stock is going up/down because of this or that.” It’s more than Larry and his Brady Bunch of Bobble-heads have.
Listen up, CNBC. If I want political commentary dressed in a thin veneer of news, I will find it online someplace. When I tune in to see financial news, I expect a certain minimum level of actual facts.
In Closing: Forbes (you guys can just keep looking for the subscription renewal check, it’s not in the mail) keeps on about Barbie; on the business cycle; preach on, WWJD indeed; I know I swore off Alternet, but MahaBarbara wrote this great item on health care; Great Depression Cooking with Clara; and the stupidest item I read all weekend, “Illegal immigrants might get stimulus jobs, experts say.” Never mind the fact that employers are already required to hire people who can legally work in this nation, what this boils down to is “They fault Congress for failing to require that employers certify legal immigration status of workers before hiring by using a Department of Homeland Security program called E-Verify.” E-Verify is nothing more than a huge government database of Social Security numbers. I consider it a huge boondoggle that, if left unchecked, will result in thousands of American citizens unable to work legally because of governmental errors.