Even more disgusting than that - Washington POst runs a piece touting CNBS, especially Joe Kernen, as being very skeptical about the analysts and the bubble. The only mention about their role as Cheerleaders is that the Prez of CNBS felt they were unfairly characterized as cheerleaders, when in fact they were catering to the majority of viewers. Pretty lame apologetic piece. I don't expect the Post reporters to criticize their fellow reporters - but this is ultimate crap I have ever read. Perhaps not as crappy as the "Maestro" by another Post star - Woodward.
washingtonpost.com
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BUBBLE : The Media Run With the Bulls
On CNBC, Boosters for The Boom
By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 12, 2002; Page A01
Third of six articles
FORT LEE, N.J.
Joe Kernen had barely slipped into his chair in the color-splashed CNBC studio here when he started needling the Wall Street fund manager across the set.
"What about AT&T Wireless?" he asked Vince Farrell Jr. of Victory Capital Management Inc., who was sitting in as co-host of the morning show "Squawk Box." "That was one of your top picks about six months ago." Since then, the stock had plunged from $14 a share to $5.
"A horrendous and a terrible pick," Farrell admitted. "But I do believe at this price it offers significant opportunity for the next couple of years."
The exchange captured what traders might call the upside and downside of CNBC, the business network where Kernen serves as stocks editor. Kernen and his partner, David Faber, are among the network's most skeptical voices, often deflating the airy assessments of Wall Street prognosticators with a vested interest in pumping up stocks. But the network continues to spotlight many of the same relentlessly optimistic traders and analysts who have been telling investors to buy, buy, buy stocks since the market imploded in the spring of 2000.
Back in the heady days of a stampeding bull market CNBC was a driving force, a cultural phenomenon, a ratings success, the play-by-play announcer for America's new pastime.
<<<snip>>>
But how much has really changed? The network still reports the daily upgrades and downgrades, interviews the analysts and CEOs, vacuums up the tips, blips and rumors that seem to move the market.
Kernen sees little alternative. The market, he says, moves on a minute-by-minute basis, and the people who watch him are all capable of making grown-up decisions.
"No one's dying on the operating table here," Kernen said. "We don't need to be pallbearers here." |
