Critic: CNBC Has Attention Span of a 'Fruit Fly'

[marmar]

from Conde Nast's Portfolio:



Mar 12 2009 10:44AM EDT
Critic: CNBC Has Attention Span of a 'Fruit Fly'

When, exactly, did talking about CNBC become a substitute for talking about the economy? Time's James Poniewozik offers his take on the business news network and its suddenly prominent role in our national conversation:

To watch CNBC today is to enter an alternative universe, where élites are populists, Wall Street is Main Street and bank executives are the oppressed. It's not surprising that a voice of opposition to the new Administration would emerge. But who would have thought it would be on a channel not owned by Rupert Murdoch?

What's strange, says Poniewozik, is that while CNBC's profile has exploded, its constituency has remained essentially unchanged. Whoever may be listening to Jim Cramer and his posse these days, they're still speaking solely on behalf of investors:

When ordinary people think about the economy, they think about jobs, college, retirement. Sure, the stock market affects them in the long run -- but so do job security and the threat of getting wiped out by health-care bills. When CNBC considers the economy, it means Wall Street's numbers that day, that hour, that minute. CNBC may pay lip service to the long term, but it has the time horizon of a fruit fly.

http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/mixed-media/2009/03/12/critic-cnbc-has-attention-span-of-a-fruit-fly

[KharmaTrain]

1. Talking With A "Friend"

Last night after TDS, my phone rang from an acquaintance who is heavily into the market and was all pissed off. He was sure Stewart was lying...beating up on poor Cramer and how this who "feud" was nothing more than PR. He was in total denial that Greed Central was being used to rig the market...diseminate misinformation that drove people to buy worthless stocks or throw money at brokerage houses that ended up funding ponzi schemes.

He just could't believe it was true...refuses to believe it. He's also lost a ton of money over the past year, and like the gambler whose gone bust but refuses to admit it, can't wait to get back and play the ponies again. Fool.

[Supersedeas]

2. the traders out there can't handle the truth