Thursday, March 5, 2009

Because it's not all that Funny



Lest anyone forget, here is a network ownership chart for CNBC's parent company, GE, as of 2006:



What does it mean when one of our best sources of objective news is a comedy show, parodying the news? Bloody zen riddle.

2 comments:

T. Greer said...

Ah, that is hardly fair. Indeed, pretending that the commentators on CNBC are of the same mind is simply ludicrous. Take (for example) Jim Cramer and Rick Santelli. The two guys hate each others guts and disagree on everything. Indeed, the evidence of this can be found with ease, right next to a youtube 5 star rating. Likewise with the rest of the people/shows lampooned. Indeed, Fast Money and Squawk Box always have at least three commentators presenting, and it is a rare occurrence when all agree.
It seems that

*sigh*

Once again the oversimplification provided by the Daily Show just kill deluded another hoard of 20-somethings who thought they were being educated.

freude bud said...

Well, T in this instance I am not a 20 something, but someone with nearly 20 years of career experience involved in one way or another with media relations, international relations and energy.

I think I can say as an up-close observer that the problem is not so much that a parody show is oversimplifying things, but that, on a whole, the business media were willing pushers of the kool aid the investment companies were pushing. You would be better educated about world affairs and the state of the economy by Jon Stewart than the vast majority of media outlets, and that, in itself, is a very unhappy indictment of the current media environment.

That investment "advice" is given out by a subsidiary of a company with a huge financial arm is a clear conflict of interest ... and has predictable results.