CNBC responds with silence to Jon Stewart’s damning portrayal of the network.
By on Mar 6th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
CNBC responds with silence to Jon Stewart’s damning portrayal of the network.
On Wednesday, The Daily Show presented a “brutal takedown” of the CNBC network for providing false and uniformed assurances to investors about the health of the stock market. “If I had only followed CNBC’s advice, I’d have a million dollars today,” Stewart said, “provided I’d started with $100 million.” (Watch the clip.) The financial network has thus far decided not to issue any response to Stewart, hoping the issue will soon blow over. The AP reports, CNBC spokesman Brian Steel “said neither the network’s executives nor [analyst Rick] Santelli would comment on Stewart’s broadcast.” Last night on David Letterman’s show, Stewart added more fuel to the fire, offering additional criticism of CNBC and the other financial networks. Watch it:
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I LOVED the Daily Show’s piece on CNBC and this clip was interesting, too.
But … What is plainly clear after these past several months is that the 24×7 financial news networks are the Fox News of the financial world.
In other words, they are not performing SERIOUS reporting. They are garnering viewers through crackpots like Santelli, Kudlow and Cramer.
And they are acting as ADVOCATES for their viewers.
So they are actually just PROTECTING traders, scam artists, investors, and the othe wealthy elites.
This is why they have started the faux outrage scandals, the tea parties and the Obama is a communist, socialist, wealth destroyer mantra.
It is simply not news. It is adovocacy and ideology.
March 6th, 2009 at 1:45 pmJon is a True Patriot.
It’s a real shame when the only truth is on a comedy show.
March 6th, 2009 at 1:45 pmThank you Jon for being brave enough, patriotic enough, and smart enough to tell it like it is.
March 6th, 2009 at 1:54 pmIt’s kinda like Stewart caught them porking their younger sister in the bathroom. No comment. (Whistling, as they stroll past their career graveyard)
March 6th, 2009 at 1:56 pmTheir defense was Jim Cramer went on Stephen Colbert. Very funny.
March 6th, 2009 at 1:58 pmIn is not just MSNBC….although what they have done should be criminal.
How about Aley Velchey (sp?) ……Suze Ormen…or any of those financial talking heads that were advising the elderly
NOT TO GET OUT OF THE STOCK MARKET…even as it was on a downward spiral.
Why…if they are so freaking smart….didn’t THEY SEE THIS COMING…..
Just like the Iraq war….the mainstream media seems to forget it’s own mistakes…or MISLEADS….shall we say
March 6th, 2009 at 1:59 pmLIES.
Whadda they gonna say??
They know Stewart is right . .
Why doesn’t CNBC do to their employees what republicans want the automakers to do to their employees?
March 6th, 2009 at 2:01 pmColbert had on Jim Cramer last night, and it was hilarious! Kittens and puppies frolicing behind his while he spoke to help soften his message, and of course the “fcuk it!” button.
When Stewart decides to go to bat for real, he hits it out of the park. I still clearly remember his slamming Bush for his “I was disappointed” statements.
PEACE
March 6th, 2009 at 2:01 pmCNBC knows full well that Stewart (or Letterman) can eviscerate critics; the irony is that all the Daily show needs to do is let the critics hang themselves with their own stupidity, via clips and reminders of their own terminal meat-whistlery.
I do so hope CNBC tries some adolescent retort; I can picture the Daily Show writers flexing their interlocked fingers like concert pianists in anticipation of another virtuoso performance….
March 6th, 2009 at 2:02 pmThis is like the time he went on Crossfire and tore them a new one. At least they’re learning. Crossfire tried to defend themselves and the show ended up being canceled. This time, I guess they figured that they couldn’t say anything without making it worse, so they aren’t saying anything.
I figure CNBC is calling the bottom as often as they can so that when it actually hits they can say they predicted it. You watch, no one will notice the hundred times they were wrong when they get the hundred and first right.
March 6th, 2009 at 2:04 pm.
The financial broadcasters sure are wet…
… In the pants, kinda wet!
.
March 6th, 2009 at 2:05 pmOne last thought: Perhaps CNBC remembers the last program that Jon Stewart got pissed off at, and their ‘coincidental’ and subsequent cancellation:
Crossfire!
March 6th, 2009 at 2:07 pm10.swordsbane Says:
D’ohh! Got me by three minutes….
March 6th, 2009 at 2:08 pmHeard Suze ortmann ysterday and she was saying if you have less than 10 yrs b4 retirement, get out of the stock market…what timing! She has good basics…but..
March 6th, 2009 at 2:11 pmI hope people finally see all of the snake oil salesmen out there…and the bullshit they peddle
Imagine if bush had been successful in privatizing Social Security…
how many poor old people would be on the street…
Business news has always ben a crabbed and pathetic thing: there’s 1 partserious reporting and analysis; one part puff pieces about executives and companies that are designed to mislead; and one part raw speculation. (Fox news adds another part of ideological frenzy.
You routinely see fawning pieces on CEO’s outlining their ‘recipes for excellence two weeks before their firm goes bnkrupt or they’re indicted for fraud. (I once saw such apiece about the head of apublishing firm I was suing for non-payment of royalties. I called up the magazine, saying that this was deceptive and I would gladly give them an interview to tell them the rest of the story. Their reaction? “Don’t get so excited, it’s just a puff piece.”
Even in good newspapers, the business section is often the least accurate and honest section. This has been true for decades. They accept their dishonesty.
March 6th, 2009 at 2:20 pmI wonder how many of these “experts” pulled their money out of the market while they were telling everyone to invest.
Criminal, I think so.
March 6th, 2009 at 2:32 pmMrWombat Says:
——————————————————————————–
Jon is a True Patriot.
It’s a real shame when the only truth is on a comedy show.
March 6th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
What’s a shame is I know you believe this.
March 6th, 2009 at 2:32 pmOK, so if Rush is the supposed “leader of the rnc”
March 6th, 2009 at 2:36 pmthen John Stewart is the leader of the “sane thinking persons party”.
republicans hate facts Says:
——————————————————————————–
Southern Man 2 Says:
MrWombat Says:
——————————————————————————–
Jon is a True Patriot.
It’s a real shame when the only truth is on a comedy show.
March 6th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
What’s a shame is I know you believe this.
Says the SHAMELESS MORON that *BELIEVES* JABBA the RUSH and FAUX NEWS! ;)
March 6th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
————-
Still gotta call people names RHF? Joke! You think Rush should be silenced?
March 6th, 2009 at 2:37 pmstateofthedivision Says:
Their defense was Jim Cramer went on Stephen Colbert. Very funny.
March 6th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
___________
Yeah, but nobody listened to him cause of the puppies and kittens…
March 6th, 2009 at 2:38 pmHow should CNBC respond? Stewart has them dead to rights. They don’t have inside information about the markets, but merely serve as a PR tool for corporate flacks and analysts whose job is to convince small to medium investors that they should put their life savings in the hands of these masters of the universe.
March 6th, 2009 at 2:38 pmSouthern Man 2 Says:
What’s a shame is I know you believe this.
March 6th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
___________
What’s shameful about that? It’s true, isn’t it?
March 6th, 2009 at 2:43 pmSouthern Man,
Are you so pissed off because you listened to these crooks and lost all your money? But they’re Republicans, they wouldn’t lie to you – would they?
March 6th, 2009 at 2:44 pmI disagree Suze is peddling stupid. If you have less than ten years before retirement the worst thing you can do is cash in all your chips now after you’ve lost a great deal of value.
We’ll never see 14,000 again because that number was a goddamn lie. The market will go back to 8 or MAYBE even 10 again after this nonsense passes.
Keep in mind that the market only went as high as it did due to legal FRAUD.
March 6th, 2009 at 2:50 pmAhh….the ultimate minority party. lol
March 6th, 2009 at 2:52 pmIt has to irritate some folks that there is a person who can wield a sword with the deftness of a scalpel as an entertainer that deflates their gasbags with ease. One who doesn’t have to resort to distortions and falsehoods to deflate their little balloons.
I would still pay good money to see Jon and Rush go at it.
March 6th, 2009 at 2:56 pmComparing Jon Stewart with Rush Limbaugh is like comparing a Japanese sushi chef who trains for years to be able to slice the puffer fish just right so it is an edible delicacy rather than a deadly poison with a McDonald’s fry cook.
March 6th, 2009 at 3:01 pmMany have known for quite some time now that if you want to get the news, you can’t watch the news on TV — you have to watch the comedians.
March 6th, 2009 at 3:01 pmJon Stewart and Stephen Colbert continue to mock real journalism and the result is that we get the news from them.
When Cramer advised people to get out of the market last fall, the rightwing had a vertical hissy. When Cramer tells people today that Obama is not helping the economy – that is supposed to be OK.
March 6th, 2009 at 3:05 pmI recall that when Cramer told people to get out, it was in the early fall of 2008 – when George Bush was president – and the market had been tanking since the spring.
Now that we have a new president, we are told to blame everything on him.
Are they really that stupid?
Southern man
better keep your head
Don’t forget
what your good book said
Southern change
gonna come at last
Now your crosses
are burning fast
Southern man
I saw cotton
and I saw black
Tall white mansions
and little shacks.
Southern man
when will you
pay them back?
I heard screamin’
and bullwhips cracking
How long? How long?
Southern man
better keep your head
Don’t forget
what your good book said
Southern change
gonna come at last
Now your crosses
are burning fast
Southern man
Lily Belle,
March 6th, 2009 at 3:19 pmyour hair is golden brown
I’ve seen your black man
comin’ round
Swear by God
I’m gonna cut him down!
I heard screamin’
and bullwhips cracking
How long? How long?
Wait, SM may have a point! Perhaps he’s (in his own sweet way) reminding us that there’s truth to be had on KO and Rachel also? No?
March 6th, 2009 at 3:35 pmThe CNBC talking head’s audience is wall street traders and day trader types. They are just appeasing their audience.
Short on facts and quick to blame – The same mentality that got us into this mess in the first place.
BTW, the Kramer rant last night was weird and almost amusing in a cartoonish way.
March 6th, 2009 at 3:54 pmGive them hell, Jon Stewart. Give them hell.
March 6th, 2009 at 4:30 pmExcept maybe to say “WHO?” I mean come on, why respond to a comic? It’s not like Olbermann making O’Really the “worst person in the world” almost very night to try and get ratings.
When a pip squeaks you’re better off ignoring it.
March 6th, 2009 at 4:33 pmI stopped listening to them when I realized they mostly hope you’ll buy what theyare ready to sell/ have run up.
March 6th, 2009 at 4:34 pmNew rule: from now on, no former Reagan or Bush (either 41 or 43) appointee should ever be allowed to expound on any subject on the public airwaves.
Also, anyone who was in any way connected to the Chicago School of Business is included in the above new rule.
This also includes anyone who believes that Ayn Rand wrote anything other than pure fantasy.
March 6th, 2009 at 5:58 pmRESPECT TO JON STEWART!!! The truth rules! The truth will set us free! Thank you Jon Stewart for helping Americans that care and want to know the truth get set free!
March 6th, 2009 at 7:01 pmMrWombat Says:
——————————————————————————–
Jon is a True Patriot.
It’s a real shame when the only truth is on a comedy show.
Ain’t that the truth! Say it ain’t so…
March 6th, 2009 at 7:05 pmcitizen_pain Says:
——————————————————————————–
Southern man
better keep your head
Don’t forget
what your good book said
Southern change
gonna come at last
Now your crosses
are burning fast
Southern man
I saw cotton
and I saw black
Tall white mansions
and little shacks.
Southern man
when will you
pay them back?
I heard screamin’
and bullwhips cracking
How long? How long?
Southern man
better keep your head
Don’t forget
what your good book said
Southern change
gonna come at last
Now your crosses
are burning fast
Southern man
Lily Belle,
your hair is golden brown
I’ve seen your black man
comin’ round
Swear by God
I’m gonna cut him down!
I heard screamin’
and bullwhips cracking
How long? How long?
EXCELLENT!
March 6th, 2009 at 7:26 pmThe people at CNBC don’t know what they are talking about, but they aren’t the only ones.
Warren Buffett is an Obama supporter and regarded as a financial guru. He’s lost 50 billion dollars:
http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_spine/archive/2009/03/02/warren-buffett-lost-50-billion-you-lost-much-less-be-happy.aspx
I’m pretty confident that nobody knows what’s going on in our current financial situation.
And Santelli doesn’t work on Wall Street. He works at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Mercantile_Exchange
and, to be fair to Santelli, he was opposed to the bailout even when Bush was proposing it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-1g0OZJIdk
March 6th, 2009 at 7:56 pmCharles Dow Rolls in His Grave: The Distortion of the Average He Made Famous – Friday, March 6, 2009
Have you ever asked yourself why the Dow Jones Industrial Average contains non-industrial stocks? Why such a large weighting is given to financial companies such as American Express, Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan and AIG (Before its removal)? After all, you wouldn’t expect to see General Motors included in a healthcare index or Goldman Sachs in the home builders index.
The Wikipedia entry for the Dow Jones Industrial Average states that:
“The average is computed from the stock prices of 30 of the largest and most widely held public companies in the United States. The “industrial” portion of the name is largely historical—many of the 30 modern components have little to do with traditional heavy industry.”
We do not dispute the claim that the “industrial” portion is largely historical. Indeed, there are components which have little to do with industry. Financial companies, who do not produce anything, comprise a large weighting the in this average of American Industry.
Over the last 20 years, the Dow Jones has been reshaped into a basket of 30 conglomerate corporations, with little regard for the actual business they’re in. Today’s Dow Jones would be unrecognizable to the man who created it over a century ago.
History
The index was first published in 1896 by Charles Dow, Founder of the Dow Jones Company and Wall Street Journal. Mr. Dow created and monitored a list of important industrial companies. Along with the Industrial Average, he created the Railroad Index (Transportation) which he would track along with the industrial stocks to gauge the health of the economy.
The Dow Theory was created based on the notion that both indexes should rise together in a healthy economy. The concept was a simple one. While industrial companies made the goods, the rails transported those goods to market. One couldn’t function without the other.
The original Industrial Average contained 12 industrial (Producers of goods) stocks:
- American Cotton Oil Company
- American Sugar Company
- American Tobacco Company
- Chicago Gas Company
- Distilling & Cattle Feeding Company
- General Electric
- Laclede Gas Light Company
- National Lead Company
- North American Company, (Edison) electric company
- Tennessee Coal,
- U.S. Leather Company
- United States Rubber Company
Notice that all of the companies in the index were producers of goods. There were no financial or bank stocks included in the average. At the time of his death in 1902, Charles Dow’s industrial average contained 12 stocks which were comprised of industrial producing companies such as US Steel, US Rubber, National Lead, American Car and Foundry, etc. Still no banks.
The Dow Jones Begins to Change
1982
80 years after the death of Charles Dow, American Express was added to the Dow Jones Industrial Average. This marked the first time that a financial stock was added to the century old index.
1988
American can, a manufacturer of tin cans merged with Commercial credit corporation and adopted the name Primerica.
1991
JP Morgan was introduced to the Dow Jones in 1991 and replaced Primerica corporation.
1997
Travelers Group was added to the index. The company would later change its name to Citigroup.
2004
AIG was added.
2008
Bank of America was added.
Reasons:
We struggle to find an explanation as to why such changes were made. Was it because America became de-industrialized over the last quarter century? Was it merely a reflection of big business today? With companies such as General Motors and General Electric playing dominant roles in non-core businesses such as finance and banking? Or were these financial stocks added to the index in hopes of propping up its value with companies such as JP Morgan and AIG, whose earning power seemed indestructible? Our hunch is that it was a combination of each. (More at the link.)
http://www.chartingstocks.net/2009/03/charles-dow-rolls-in-his-grave-the-distortion-of-the-average-he-made-famous/
March 7th, 2009 at 7:34 amPredictably, Stewart came back at CNBC a second time for their silence on this matter. CNBC is making a big mistake in letting this fester like this. You never, ever, let a head of steam build up on an issue like this. CNBC will pay dearly for this series of mistakes.
March 7th, 2009 at 5:05 pmWhere’s santellis big mouth now? when the market finishes its crash, maybe you can go back to school to find a new career, something you’re good at!
March 8th, 2009 at 5:23 amStewart is practically the only one who is lining up the culprits for the mess on Wall Street. Certainly the Bartilomo’s, Santellis, Fabers, Cramers of the past decade media fete hyping trading, hedge funds, and outsized returns contributed to the bubble.
CNBC is notorious esp. with Kudlow in justifying the outrageous salaries and bonuses. They’ve made Wall Street in the 21st Century a Las Vegas - gamble with high stakes. It’s become the daily soap opera/”price is right” with day traders as the main contestants.
Stewart should also start looking at how the tax code is set up to benefit speculators. As long as the marginal income tax rate is used for short term capital gains taxes, we are putting day traders and speculators at the same tax level as a hard working mother.
The Tax Rates on short term capital gains and derivative (options) income must be changed. All derivative income should be taxed at 80%, all day trades at 80%, any profit on a trade held under 1 years should be taxed at 60%, etc. Eliminate tax deductions for margin interest. Etc.
Kudlow and Santelli can scream about Obama ruining capitalism, however it is the hedge funds, program trading, and derivatives traders that have ruined the prospect of middle America ever buyng stocks again. Until investors feel safe and at an advantage over traders, Wall Street will never come back.
March 8th, 2009 at 9:50 am