Are CNBC and Jim Cramer gaming the market with their shows? Do we need a Network Fairness Doctrine?
By John Amato Monday Mar 09, 2009 5:45am
I write a lot about the FOX stock shows as well as the CNBC network because they are completely unbalanced while they scream at anything that tries to regulate Wall Street. And they need to have their wingnut welfare tax breaks too.
D-day has a great post up that discussed the abuses that are being documented against CNBC and Jim Cramer in particular:
Obviously, Wall Street rage is aimed at getting the biggest banks paid off and the shareholders made whole so that only taxpayers will bear the burden of the collapse. There may be a very good reason, however, for outlets like CNBC, in particular Jim Cramer, to claim that Obama is responsible for the fall of the market. It deflects the blame from themselves. The story of Deep Capture is epic and needs to be read in full by the investigators who followed it for years to really understand. But TocqueDeville at Daily Kos does a pretty decent summarizing job.
This rabbit hole involves the thugs surrounding Jim Cramer and some of the top financial "journalists" from the New York Times, WSJ, Fortune magazine and BusinessWeek, top hedge funds, the Mafia, and the DTCC. It also includes "blackmail, smear campaigns, espionage, fraud, harassment, extortion, bribery, rumor-mongering, sabotage, off-shore money laundering, political cronyism, frivolous lawsuits, witness tampering, biased financial research, false identities, bogus credit ratings, bribery, libelous blogs, bad science, forgery, wiretapping, counterfeiting, collusion, lying, cheating, threats and theft."
And if that wasn't fun enough, it may be the underlying story of what collapsed the entire, global banking system or at least served as the catalyst for the collapse.
We're talking about financial journalists using the power of their megaphone to trash a stock, or even tout it at the last minute, and then, through naked short-selling, earn millions while destroying public companies. And Jim Cramer is perhaps the greatest offender.
There needs to be an investigation into the use of the media outlets for ill-gotten gain. Kind of like Bernie Madoffs for Cable TV.
Every stock show I watch just attacks President Obama's economic plans mercilessly as if he caused the international crisis the world faces, while they themselves were willing players in the entire charade. Jon Stewart hit a nerve when he exposed them on his show, which probably took all of a week to put together. And their response to him was just as ridiculous as the "news" they peddle.
Erin Burnett was so bad on Real Time Friday night that Bill Maher called one of her answers "bullshit."
Digby saw it too.
I just saw Erin Burnett on Bill Maher and I honestly think Britney Spears could do as well. She said that nobody on the left and nobody on the right wants nationalization. And then she said,"At the end, the taxpayers will probably get a check and it will be used to save social security."
Isn't it in the best interest of America that these networks, with their stranglehold on broadcast information, become regulated? Not in an overwhelming way, but in a way that forces them to present hard news, objective information, about the very subjects they cover?
These networks are the information pipeline to the people. It's how we get the data we need on what our money is doing. And when the people running those pipelines are permitted to lie, distort, slant, and finally manipulate that data for the purposes of getting rich -- and to hell with how it affects the global economy -- then it's time to make some changes.
TocqueDeville of DKos writes a great post called:Jim Cramer Uses CNBC to Manipulate Stocks that d-day cites and it's well worth a read.
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I've been extremely suspicious of this market watch channel because they gamed the system totally. And, what's more, in this dire crisis, these bobbleheads continue to "game the system". In the best interest of national security, these shows need to be off the air.
It used to be called "unfair advantage/insider trading" which is precisely what these manipulators have done. They gamed the system for failure which ONLY THEY knew was coming - they knew all the minute details and made a killing off of it all.
Insider info is corrupt. These loudmouths set the rules, and set into motion the keys for their fortunes! Let's see how much Cramer et al lost in this recession, shall we?
Therein lies the tale - follow the money - follow their paper trails.
http://www.mediachannel.org/wordpress/2009/03...
but the truth is MOST PEOPLE DON'T WATCH THESE IDIOTS>>>IGNORE THEM!
Listen to the people that have a positive track record!
the fact is Cramer & Co. have wreaked extensive damage. Don't bother with the Kos post, though it's good of him to point it out. Instead download the pdf at the top of the page at:
http://www.deepcapture.com/the-story-of-deep-...
and see just how deep and wide this thing is.
It makes you wonder whether people like this shouldn't be made examples of, given sentences (and to places) that make even those in favor wince a little.
These market manipulating shows along with Rushbo, the Magic Nazi, need to be pulled off the air. When it comes to a national crisis (international crisis?) of this magnitude, these problematic naysayers can cause "panic" leading to a horrendous breakdown of our nation.
thanks to Bush, Holder has the Patriot Act which needs to be used in this THREAT to our natinal security. I can't imagine a better use of the Act myself.
According to this article, the Obama Administration went to court on behalf of JOHN YOO, I believe, on Friday:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?contex...
And to add insult to injury, Lieberman just LOVES Obama now:
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090309/D96Q...
I did a lot of stock market buying and selling of retirement plan assets and also a lot of research.
After doing this for about a year, I came to the conclusion that either Cramer et al were ignorant fools or Cramer et al were lying fucks who were pumping stocks out of self interest.
I further came to the conclusion that, given Cramer has a law degree from Harvard, it was the latter.
The question I had then and now: Where the fuck has the S.E.C. been?
I guess we all know the answer to that question.
Where are they now?
answer: the same...
The SEC was absconded by the same right wing capitalist who have taken over K street, taken over legislation writing and taken over regulatory agencies.
The last 3 SEC Chairmen have been GOP cock swallowers.
^DJI 6666.60 +39.66
the stock market isn't rallying...it is hovering. It has set its value at around 6,500 and will stay there for a bit until there is more news.
666 is definitely an eye opener though.
I Kings 10:14
Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred threescore and six talents of gold...
(KJV)
I should be so talented.
is the market still trying to adjust to the DOW's being overvalued due to the plummeting value of the US dollar a few years ago, IMO.
Oh yeah...the brain surgeon who said "buy buy buy" while Bear Stearns was listing like the Titanic.
Yeah...there's a guy people should listen to.
Good luck with their advise!
Meditate on it
http://www.capitalstool.com/forums/index.php?...
This emotionally touched gas bag will stop his made for TV rants when some poor scmuck whose lost their savings believing his economic dumbshit, takes a shot at him.
n/t
it's going to be painful but well worth it.
I'm a bleeding heart lefty, but really, there is a mechanism to prevent us from cable news swindles: use your clicker to turn the channel. I would no sooner take investment advice from Jim Cramer than I would from a Nigerian prince on the Internets.
Cable news programming is bad for your brain. Don't watch.
just turn the TV off. Instead of relying on it as ones only connection to the supposed "real world" out there.
But without the Weather Channel, how will I know what it's like outside?
I have, as of lately, come to the same conclusion. Not just about the market but about a lot of things. If you listen to and believe all the cable talking heads, you would be under suicide watch today. Don't let them direct you in any part of your life. They don't know better than you do about your life or circumstances. These people on cnbc are not there to help you make money, they are there to make money for themselves, as is every business.
TV is pretty much universally bad. It could be wonderful and useful and informative, but it's now none of those things.
Our television broke about three years ago and we didn't replace it until last year. We don't have cable and we watch movies that we either rent or buy, mostly things that are funny, there's far too much angst to watch depressing/reality flicks. If we want to see something running on television we try to catch it on the internet.
Anytime I've ever seen Cramer shrieking and jumping around like a howler monkey I can't imagine sitting through five minutes of his antics let alone a complete show. The psychological profile of his audience must be rich. He cares about no one but himself, his bank accounts and his mammoth-sized ego. Nothing he would have to say would ever matter to me, but then I tend to take my own advice, it's a much healthier way to go.
The problem with Cramer et al. is not that they are annoying, but that other people are happily listening to them, and that is causing damage to the economy which hurts you whether you own a television or not.
I don't think we can start regulating cable television, though: that would be flat-out censorship without even the "public airwaves" argument that was behind the Fairness Doctrine. With that precedent in place, Bush would have had no trouble pulling Olbermann or Maddow off the air. I'm all for punishing people who manipulate the markets as this article alleges, but one must be careful to distinguish between corruption and stupidity. If there's proof that Cramer made money off his wrong predictions, and I think it would suffice if Cramer repeatedly did the opposite of what he publicly advised, then he should be charged with some form of fraud (it's not insider trading, but it's related). And we need more Jon Stewarts out there calling out these people for their gross incompetence. The Daily Show is too easy to dismiss because it's a comedy show; we need professional journalists out there doing the same schtick without the comedy.
from today at: Kunstler.com
I think he sums up where we are quite well, vis-a-vis the economy.
a chance in the Stock Markets. To many traders (sharks) in the game now days.
the average person NEVER had a chance in the stock market.
Stock markets are structurally designed to siphon money upwards, not downwards. Small time investors are the bottom of the pyramid that is a capital-based economy: they do the working and pay for the screw.
Ja wohl!
I read somewhere that Citiwide, one of the leading causes of our economic breakdown now, is using bailout money to buy other corporations from the government with pennies on the dollars, thus increasing their market-share.
Damn right! Nothing is more disturbing to me than when people refer to the Fox, CNBC, CNN, etc... as 'news'. Anyone who cannot distinguish news and professional journalism from cable news punditry should be considered a potential threat to themselves and others and dealt with accordingly.
In my mind, FOX and CNBC are little different from 'Sabado Gigante' on Univision... and I sure as hell don't intend to take retirement planning advice from Don Francisco, despite his abundance of charisma.
Today's NYT had an article on MSNBC blurring news and commentary.
I wonder if said article mentions FOX even as a passing reference?
that and the Telenovelas are the only reason to watch Telemundo. Much more entertaining that CNBC any day...
I know little about economics and now trying to understand what has happened and what is happening is confusing as hell. Reporting like this, along with all the references you mentioned are tremendously important in educating the public.
Something smells gamey.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vteImijZQM0&fe...
You sucked me right into spending the past 2 hours or so watching, "The Most Deadly Game".
Appreciate it.
Har, har.
...like John Stewart and Steven Colbert. These idiots should be exposed for what they are, but there are real problems when the government intervenes with media content. First of all, let's make it easier to sue people who deliberately disseminate false information, and giving TV experts the responsibility of actually knowing what they're talking about. If they are dishonest or incompetent, then they should be liable for what comes out of their mouths. Also, let's make MSNBC the ratings leader; not only will they want to increase their viewership by adding more like Keith and Rachel, but it will mean that other supposedly mainstream networks will start to be critical of BS wherever it occurs, since they'll want to cut into MSNBC's audience.
Don't waste your time ruing its demise.
The media are ALL owned by corpoRat interests which will never, ever ever permit the re-institution of anything even remotely like it.
Nagahapun...especially now that so much media--especially cable and sat feeds--is no longer under the regulation of the FCC...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfSmdYmvBr4
I am just curious.
The best the we got out of the Fairness Doctrine in the 50's was 6:00 news. The news organizations of the three networks were never a money maker. The news wasn't bad though - for nearly 30 years. Today we have no news outlet; none are required and cable is bought and paid for as propaganda. The current situation is exactly why the Fairness Doctrine was enacted to begin with.
financial community on which they 'report,' we discover in microcosm the true relation between ALL CorpoRat media and the institutions they "cover": shilling and sycophancy.
It reached the height of embarrassing last year listening to CNBC trools grilling Nouri alRoubini for fucking stock tips...
Today's NYT had an article on MSNBC blurring news and commentary.
Especially in "cable" coverage, where the same person 'delivers' both.
I noticed Scarborough and Matthews casually mention "GE seems to be a good stock these days" or something similar to that. How ethical is that?
I guess when you've got GE's dick in your mouth, you're sure it's
absolutely fine.
GE had a huge exposure to this mess with their financing branch...
Talking about losing credibility. I used to watch CNBC. They were the cheerleaders for "everything is fantastic" when the markets were heading south. Of course there was the Cramer telling all his sheep that Bear Sterns was doing fine 3 days before it failed and that Lehmann was fine as well just before it failed and that the banks were in ok shape because they took a few billion $$$$ in write downs. To look at the economy/market now and what CNBC was saying a year ago is all anybody needs to do. BINGO!! They are full of shit!! Not only do they not know what is going to happen they did and said whatever the banks, insurance companies, brokerage houses and swindlers told them to do and say. Any credibility they may have had is GONE. They have NONE!!! Le them go talk to themselves. Watch them lose each other's money because nobody else has any money to lose anymore.
At the very least, any channel that has "News" as part of it's name should be required to have a banner reading "Commentary" or "Advertisement" across the top of the screen whenever some pundit (or anchorman) is doing their carnival barking or laying on their political spin.
The folding of News Divisions into the Entertainment Divisions of the at that time major networks, occurred under the Reagan Administration.
If I were a news commenter I'd want a banner repeatedly flashing, "Cough...cough...b**l-s**t...cough...cough."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H6OULO5R4Y
The Fairness Doctrine is too subjective to be applied: who decides what the opposing side is? Do Libertarians get equal time? Greens? Are the Democrats represented by Blue Dogs or Progressives?
A suggested alternative I've heard is the need to break up the media conglomerates, and I'm all for that. More choice means more opinions. Lower the barrier of entry for smaller competitors. Make it easier for new channels to get seen on cable (for as long as cable lasts as such).
i vote for an air america type station, the Daily Show can't do it all. but as we have seen in the past, that type of format just can't come up with enough investors to become a player on the big stage.
Could that be because they are competing with even bigger players? (Not a rhetorical question; I don't know enough to say.) In radio, for instance, if a media conglomerate comes in with truckloads of money and buys up all the frequencies, doesn't that make it harder for Air America to get a foothold? (Cable TV must be harder because it's a national audience and you have to negotiate with national cable companies, but still, you're competing with megacorps for limited resources, that's gotta make it tougher.)
Problem with capitalism are the capitalists, is what you seem to be implying--and nothing could be more true.
I agree with your take on the Fairness Doctrine--conceptually, it's a good idea...where it gets thorny is in the actual implementation--especialy the how & the who of it. Someone has to decide which aspects of any given issue are the "important" aspects, and thus deemed worth reporting on--and that's where it all falls apart..right at the very point of implementation.
Turning idea into action, in this case, is a real can of worms--your alternative of breaking the conglomerates apart is a always a good idea, imo...but where to go after that?
Instead of more outlets and choices of outlets, what would happen if there were less--with each channel providing equal time for presenting alternate viewpoints and opinions of whatever the chosen topic is--and a strict adherence to the rules of engagement, as it were.
As I said up thread...I don't presume to have a solution, but something must be done, that's a certainty.
This is the same asshole who told people on national news in Oct '08 to get out of the market if they planned on using their 401ks in the next 20 years. Real bright.
Now he is blaming Obama?
Cramer should be noted as being PART of the fall. He was the first one on CNBC to implore that people sell and run.
And Burnette? Put her on the Bachelor, that's where she belongs.
the 21st century stock market was our 1949 gold rush. middle class americans rushed to invest their money in order to strike it rich at any cost. cheering when stocks climbed even as our own neighbors were getting laid-off. we ourselves enabled corporations to ship our jobs over seas in order for the super rich to make millions while we, the small time investers, made just about enough to send our friends a "sorry you lost your job" card. what did Americans think would happen when our $20 and $30 a hour jobs were replaced by $7 and $10 a hour jobs? we stopped spending, and stocks fell, more and more jobs lost. the super rich are'nt in the market, they bailed awhile ago, they are waiting for it to bottom out then they will jump back in and buy everything up for pennies on the dollar. not until then will the markets turn. i'm hopeful that it will be soon,
I'm NOT saying everybody is responsible for this down turn, the usual suspects that I have talked to over the last few years were generally middleclass wanna-be-rich repugs but some Democrats were also guilty of it. and I certainly don't blame anyone for trying to better themselves, but not at all costs.
stations repeat obama is the problem over and over 24/7/365
If you have not read it yet, TocqueDeville at Daily Kos (as referenced above in the post) is a MUST read if you have ever watched CNBC. CNBC appears to be a criminal organization.
This is just one quote and there are many more!!! I would suggest you pass this story around to everybody you know or any blog yoiu frequent. It is very important!
I saw Cramer on the Colbert Show.....gotta wonder how anyone in their right mind would voluntarily go on Colbert's show KNOWING he's going to show America what an asshat they really are.
Wow. Someone has finally articulated a suspician that I've held for at least the last several months. It has been my belief that the media's role in our current situation is far more relevant than being merely biased (which way that bias leans being a matter of individual opinion and irrelevant to my point).
The influence the media exerts over the masses is much more influential than most Americans are even aware, imo...and that makes them very powerful, indeed. For instance, what gets reported, and how, will make or break the Obama recovery plan. The various news outlets, rather than informing the public in an across-the-board inclusive and in-depth breakdown of the entire picture on any one issue or situation, they all hone in on the same narrow thread of an issue, thus completely skewing that issue, as well as falsly magnifying the importance of that portion of the issue...and by doing that, they ultimately control how the masses think of that entire issue.
I don't presume to know how to fix this, it's a real problem...it needs fixing, though.
I wish Michael Moore would make a documentary film that totally exposed the CORPORATE MEDIA and all the criminal 'pundits' that are bought and paid for by them. These pundits are nothing more than dancing monkeys at the end of a tether that is attached to a grinding organ, with their little bell hop hats on, bell hop uniforms in place, and the TUNE THAT THEY ARE DANCING TOO IS PLAYED BY THEIR CORPORATE MASTERS. Maybe a great question that Michael could ask in the process of exposing the DANCING MONKEYS is why is it that the corporate cum sluts like Brian Williams , for example, is PAID 10 MILLION A YEAR. And exactly for what ? What justifies this cum slut being paid that amount of money given he spends less than 30 minutes reading what is put in front of him to read: the corporate propaganda. All of them have been turned into millionairs by these Corporations so that the dancing monkeys then do their bidding. And here we are in this economy , at this time, 10,000 hard working folks loosing their homes every day now. What is left of our once great country is collapsing around us, 2 million have lost their jobs in just the last three months, and yet these evil dancing monkeys are making millions. Meanwhile the teachers of our kids make about 30,000 a year.
And of course all these millionair capitalists smear the word socialism. Like the word liberal has become a swear word. Socialism simply means a social system that is fair and equitable to all. Oh my god. There goes my personal greed, the very same personal greed that has destroyed this country, the same greed that is the very essence of what is means to be a REPIGLICAN.
This greed knows no limits to these evil creatures. And of course the millionair dancing monkeys want to protect their own greed. They get to be the 'media elite'. All of them should be arrested for journalistic fraud, a purposeful effort to deceive the American people. As Scott Mcllelan said these dancing monkeys have been and are 'actively complicit' in advancing the Corporate Agenda including Iraq.
They should be arrested and frog marched out of the protection of their Corporate Studios and sent directly to prison. Once there they should be turned into bitches for the enjoyment of the inmates.
I hope someone like Michael Moore can document all of it.Must Listen to FDR's 1936 Campaign Speech at Madison Square Garden:
"We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace—business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob. Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred." It is as fresh as daisy today.
The unfair advantage these multimillion dollar corporations have over the information Americans consume is why we desperately need laws to create unbiased, objective, truthful and reliable journalism which is vital to the healthy functioning of any democracy. State propaganda is what totalitarian regimes have. Anyone not wanting a "fairness doctrine" or something like that is essentially promoting fascism and the downfall of America. Well said by the way, I would love to see justice come to the dancing monkeys and their masters.
I bet it'll end up being more unfair than anything else. With more and more people getting their news from alternative sources such as the internet. The need for such regulation really makes no sense. Don't like the news? Then go find your own(like on crooksandliars.org)- and convince more people to get their news that way.
I have no doubt these cable news networks are screwing around with the Market. When Fox is over there wanting Obama to fail, screaming doom and gloom, what to you expect? Everyone of the financial news networks got it wrong. The "Media" has become way to powerful. They really do call the shots. When you control the message you control everything. It's really very scary and the impact on democracy could be devastating over the long haul.
All history is class warfare.
All history is class warfare.
All history is class warfare.
Feel free to call me a Marxist. I'd be proud.
PS the mob always wins in the end. Time to speed things up?
In the last two paragraphs of his column, Frank Rich totally flayed cramer. He mentioned him by name, listed his bum calls and generally humiliated him, he has had this coming. He has on cnbc this morning with erin whatshername and he was totally whithered. He really is a flyweight blow hard and I think Rich's schooling of him was just what the doctor ordered. Earlier cnbc had jack welch on who is the patron to tweety, russert, gregory and brokaw spewing his innane verbiage. He is a craven scumbag in the cheney mold, cnbc spends their entire broadcast time bashing obama and his team. I have always thought these squawkers are a tree falling in the woods, but with more of us out of work they have a captive audience....caveat emptor.
The only thing the government should be protecting is the 100,000 in each persons bank account they are suppose to do. Santelli is kinda hypocritical, I understand Colberts point:)
I would NOT dip in to this economy at all. Be realistic, not just positive. Reality comes at a cost of the positive too much.
Jim Kramer is a joke btw, he has been wrong so many times I can't even count.
All the Republican / "Conservative" imbeciles have now are CNBC and the likes of Larry the Jackass Kudlow , Fox news , Limbaugh and a few others , their " leaders " in DC have thoroughly discredited themselves even to those same imbeciles and they do not have a leader now , all they have is the right wing media , liars and lunatics , more powerful than the Republican party itself . The fairness doctrine would be a good thing as I see it but ain't going to happen , the powers that be will not let it happen , besides the fairness doctrine would not raise the IQ's or cure the psychological problems of Republican supporters who are the country's biggest and worst problem .
The media angle he sheds light on is welcome reading . . . but his greatest contribution to discourse and us readers ever comes from sharing 'Deep Capture' with us all.
Wow.
Media, cable econ news, Cramer, et al . . . sure, a story there, but the meat of all of this lies in 'Deep Capture'.
It's the stuff of history rivaled by the likes of Gary Webb's Iran/Contra expose (wherin crack was introduced to our population) and Naomi Kline's 'Shock Doctrine'.
'Deep Capture' is a compelling and must read for all, please share it with everyone you know.
And no, I'm NOT Gary Weiss, Patrick Byrne or anyone else. I'm just an average ordinary guy looking for some truth and people to hold accountable for where our country went.
Thanks, again, Mr. Amato . . . wow.
which are illegal, the SEC issued a statement last July reminding investors to not naked short financial stocks... through the end of the month.
http://sec.gov/news/press/2008/2008-143.htm
That's akin to a police department saying, "Don't murder children for the next two weeks."
owns a stock, and it sounds nice, but it's really just the biggest tax dodge ever:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charitable_trust
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