Stewart-CNBC feud

So if they actually break a story or provide insightful commentary, what's that -- a happy accident?
Boy, that's depressing.

 

Matthews talked generically about Wall Street and people's discontent with that crowd, but didn't mention the interview.
I'm glad BOR used it as a topic, and I don't think Stewart was so much defending Obama by taking on Cramer, but more caught up in the "who are these guys to point the finger at anyone" sentiment.
I imagine O'Reilly may have just done the segment to set up a bigger "cover-up" story on NBC telling producers not to mention it next week. Really bad idea, especially for MSNBC which probably shares a lot of viewers with The Daily Show.

 

ColbertN: NBC News is like any other large organization. It has plenty of individuals who do outstanding work at their chosen profession and plenty of others who work hard and try their best to live up to the ideas the organization is supposed to represent.
BUT... when the truth conflicts with the imperatives of the organization, which in this is GE's profit, facts lose in a first round knockout.
And when truth conflicts with the private financial interests of GE management, like say, tax policy, facts lose in a second round knockout.

 

Current topic on Maddow: Cramer's appearance on The Daily Show.

 

That was a nice save by NBC. Have Maddow mention it at 9:30 p.m. EST on a Friday - save credibility, acknowledge it and move on. Stories like this you put the fire out by taking the oxygen away.

 

What points?

Cramer pulled a Madoff and ignored the victims while glorifying himself.

Cramer is off the air before the All-Star break.

 

Burnett came across as the mentally underwhelming, hey-look-at-me-I'm-a-hottie-updating-the-Dow's-numbers-on-TV lightweight I figured she is.

 

Lets call CNBC what it is: stock market porn. Nate Silver made the (obvious, yet not always realized) point in a 538 post that the health of the Dow Jones and the health of the economy as a whole are not 100% tied to each other. You can take actions that negatively affect the Dow, but are good for creating a healthy, stable economy. The Dow might be the most visible and easily quantifiable measure of economic health, but it is by no means the only one.

CNBC is not a college economics course, it is not a televised policy paper and it is not even a good substitute for the Wall Street Journal. It is entirely about who is up and who is down, who is overvalued and undervalued. To the extent that the effects of governmental and monetary policy on this economy are discussed, it is in "will this hurt the stock price of Bank of America?" It is a network devoted to YOUR money. Is Erin Burnett a vapid money-grubbing attention whore? Yeah. But I can't deny that she represents her audience of people dabbling in the stock market to make a quick buck. If CNBC had been out front on what was going on with the banks in this country, they would have been a lonely voice in the wilderness because I firmly believe that their viewership never considered the idea that the market could crater and would go somewhere else to find a carnival barker promising big profits from a small investment in a market that will only go up forever.

 

A good analogy would be that CNBC is like those fantasy football shows.

 

Andrea Mitchell is married to Alan Greenspan.
You really think anyone at NBC is really going to go after Greenspan?
David Gregory is married to Fannie Mae's former top attorney.
He going to ask his wife to be on Meet the Press?

 

It's also amusing hearing Mike Barnicle defend the banks, considering he's married to a pooh-bah with BofA.
I remember how impressed I was when NBC Nightly News did a a solid 3 minute report on a settlement GE made with the government to clean up a section of the Hudson River they polluted. It was in the first segment, and they did mention the relationship between GE and NBC. And yet a two-bit punking on a cable comedy show that is the watercooler moment of the day fails to make it on shows that usually find time for the top 10 ranked daily zeitgeist moments.

 

If you're looking for solid financial reporting, CNBC has never been the place to go. Actually, there is no place to go, but that's a discussion for another day. The only thing CNBC is good for is up-to-date market moves. As journalists they are woefully inept.