Can we fix the reporting done on financial-TV news programs?
By John Amato Wednesday Jun 10, 2009 10:40amIt's really almost impossible to fix the mess that is financial TV because the on-air blowhards slavishly believe in unlimited power and money for corporations, and they hold average American families as a means to an end. But Barry Ritholtz has some ideas -- some of them we've written about before.
Barry Ritholtz list sixteen steps:
Over the past 5 years, I have appeared on various Financial TV shows over a 100 times. But I am also a huge consumer of financial news, in print, on the web, radio, and of course, TV. Being on both sides of the camera gives me a fairly good perspective on what does and doesn’t work on TV. I also have some strong ideas as to what is good and bad TV in terms of providing a social utility, being part of the democratic process, etc.
Indeed, this is a longstanding interest of mine. Over the weekend, I referenced the current Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) issue that focused on the role of the media in the credit crisis, stock market and economic collapse (CJR on CNBC, WSJ & Business Press). This area has long interested me (hence, our media panel at TBP conference). But I was surprised this post generated 100 comments from readers.
One emailer challenged me on CJR’s CNBC piece: “Its easy to complain, but what would you do to “fix” Financial Television?”
Challenge accepted. Here are my general suggestions as to how to “fix” what needs repair on not just CNBC, but all FinTV.
How to Fix Financial Television...Read on
He's got some really good ideas. I already proposed a Punditocracy Ombudsman to clean up the talking heads that constantly give us false information and then are welcomed back on the set as if they are geniuses.
C&L's Accountability for the Punditocracy Proposal
C&L and many other blogs have become the magnifying glass which scrutinizes the pundits that inhabit our airwaves and calls them out when they are culpable for the many wrongs we see on a daily basis. Tapper hints at that there should be some sort of culpability factor, but when we do it, they usually recoil in outrage. Glenn Greenwald's email chain to John King is a perfect example of this reaction to valid criticism. Forget about the predictions game on an election cycle because voters end up deciding the outcome, but how about when an issue like a possible WAR is being debated and the public only has the Punditocracy as their information messengers, so to speak?
Here's a few things the networks can do to clean up their act. (h/t Nicole for some suggestions)
1) Set up an Ombudsman with a staff for each network that isn't an employee of their corporation and have a weekly segment devoted to policing the media. They will also be available to take complaints reported by individual citizens and investigate them thoroughly.
2) Replay clips of each pundit when they've been proven wrong and let them explain their positions and why they thought they were right and ask them how they will correct their mistakes in the future.
3) Keep track of their infractions and set up a benchmark, like a 3 strikes your out rule for pundits. When they hit the benchmark, suspend them for a period of time so they can reflect on their mistakes.
4) When they return to work, ask them why they should be believed in the future.
5) It would be nice if they stopped using pundits that we know have been wrong over and over again.
Please add to the list...
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Take em to the vet.
People still watch financial news shows?
Can we fix the 'reporting' done on financial-TV news programs?
That headline makes much more sense with the quote marks. CNBC = FOX style 'reportage' maybe with less tits and ass, but basically, lies.
:P
So...bring on the tits and ass and get more ratings!
Works for me!
You want rash limpballs on financial news?
Please don't do that.
It's more important to keep Wall Streeters from being part of the administration so we can have real reform. But I guess it's too late for that now. Concentrating on how financial news is reported (rather than how Wall Street works and how much influence they have in Washington) is like how the Republicans are trying to muddy the waters in relation to torture. They want to talk about whether it works rather than the fact that it is illegal. Let's stick to the real point
Why not just rename CNBC the Business Entertainment Channel. Then folks would have a better chance of understanding their motives, ratings and advertizing dollars, thus not taking their advise seriously and blowing their retirements on shallow, stupid, advise.
Change? Remember how fast Cramer went back to acting like a financhial Spike Jones (sorry young folks, google him) after getting trimmed by John Stewart? Ratings and revenue...nothing else matters at all to them.
the short answer is no.
You are operating under the assumption that something is wrong with financial television. There isn't a blessed thing wrong with it.
These folks are pontificating on the state of the economy, forecasts, and speculation based on their allegiance to a single failed economic theory.
Call it whatever you want, but the bottom line is that this whole "Friedmanian, Reaganist" view of tax cuts and privatization drives everything else.
Nothings going to change. We've been here before. The Great Depression destroyed this type of capitalist economic viewpoint decades ago. Go back and look at it. I'll sum it up in one sentence. In the 1920s you had shoe shines discussing the market with the brokers whose shoes they were shining. Does this sound all that different than where we are today?
Don't let the Kudlow's of the world get you down. They're wrong...they've been wrong. Their just not man enough to admit it.
My advice to people. Watch the shows if you want, do the opposite of what they recommend. You can't wind up any worse...and may wind up better.
i reduced my cNBC watching/listening. NOT because i only hear what i want i appreciate other opinions
and viewpoints but cNBC has been very obvious in how they view obama/policies. they jab the unions when they can. they tried to shift more blame on homeowners regarding the foreclosure crisis. the automaker crisis has become a common joke with the likes of "government motors". they chant a positive side of TAX havens being needed in a competitive market. cNBC has been very anti-obama. when the market was on the decline it was basically obama's fault but when it returned beyond what it was before obama took office NOthing. the market is full of deception/choas by design. cNBC is using this crisis as an opportune time to help the (r) party/financial elite.
Don't watch cable news. There, all fixed.
This could really produce some serious job openings if all the corporate tools who have been wrong about everything were fired!
There would nary be a familiar face on the tube. How cool!
And fire all the rightwing assholes who just make shit up without ever having any facts or figures to back up their claims. So-long Fux noise!
That would make Orwell very proud.
When the Treasury and the Fed are not owned by the Wall Street Mafia, the representatives therefrom will perhaps say something of substance that might filter its way through the corporate media undiluted.
As it stands now, the government is a front for Wall Street Mob and the media is just carrying water.
Hire a Secretary of Treasury and Economic team that will NOT be looking for jobs on Wall Street when they leave government, then something might change.
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Adding to your list, (a) full disclosure of parties' positions in companies covered in on air topics, (b) full disclosure of relationships of parties involved.
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Obama Names Overseer to Set Pay at Rescued Companies NYT here.
remember this one?
http://www.cpusa.org/article/view/348/
has a lot to do with health insurances,
privatizing social security, and tons of evidence also..
check it out..
You can never trust CNBC. I used to watch them all the time. Time after time they have shown themselves to be shills for big corporations. In effect trying to prime the stock price. The deal with Jim Cramer is a great example of how they operate. Larry Kudlow is another bloviating liar. Rick Santelli let us know how he feels about the average investor when he called people who are losing their houses, he called them losers. I would NEVER watch this network ever again and suggest nobody else should watch it either. They are liars and cheats.
... exactly because of these three clowns. But have you noticed - not only on CNBC but all Cables - the idiots who are usually wrong are the most vociferous ones.
Here's a simple rule: if you ask your guest a question, and they reply by saying "Look..." or "[Your name]..." or "I think the real question is..." and then proceed to launch into their pre-digested talking point screed, STOP THEM.
STOP THEM.
It's really very simple. In a court of law, when you ramble and don't answer the question, you get duly chastised. If you have a powerful politician on and they try to avoid a direct and important question and choose instead to simply use your airtime to deliver their speeches and lies, interrupt them politely and remind them that this isn't a press conference.
In one form or another.
Television. It's always been that way.
Gee, whiz. Pardon me if I don't climb all over this bandwagon. One, this sounds an awful lot like the self-regulation pushed on us by Bush/Cheney. Two, there was a court case in Florida, one of wrongful discharge against Fox by two reporters who claimed that they were ordered to lie about the news. The court held that the news didn't have to be truthful and the employees lost their suit. Hence, we have no way to hold anyone in the media accountable. They can lie to their heart's content and it's all LEGAL!
Can we fix the reporting done on financial-TV news programs?
No. This has been another edition of .....
Longer shorter, the entire purpose of the financial news is to make people stupid and muddy the waters so that wealthy insiders can bilk the rubes.
...Hire fewer pundits! (Experts are better. Why are the Newts passing judgement on financial/economics issues when there are economists available?)
...Stop presenting both sides as if they were equally valid! (There is no reason to give airtime to the "Obama is a socialist" argument. It misleads the public and wastes time for real debate on real issues.)
Whatever happened to Cavuto's round table of Hooters waitresses? Fox used to be much classier.
Stop watching them!
Is that "poetry, man", Miss Kitty?
No. Next question.
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