Mark, he's certainly got a little more on the ball than the idiots who decided to let the head of CS First Boston's tech research group (I think that's how he was introduced) have Cobb pitch him a bunch of softballs in a live "interview" earlier in the afternoon.
I don't understand it.
One of the people partially responsible for barring the network and the rest of the media from doing their jobs is there live on camera and CNBC is content just to play along without even raising that point?
Does anyone at CNBC realize that at that moment Cobb/CNBC looked like a lapdog?
That you could reasonably characterize what happened at that conference was...
Here boy, wait here at the door...yes...good boy...okay, here's a little Milk Bone for you...analyst X says company X told a selected group of market participants meeting behind closed doors X...no, no, no...stay...stay...good boy...analyst Y says says company Y told a selected group of market participants meeting behind closed doors Y...okay, now I'm ready for my live interview...
If someone at CNBC wants to argue that they fought incredibly hard to get into that conference and they had to do the best they could under the circumstances - fine.
I'm questioning whether ignoring it that gratuitously is "the best they could do", because I've seen nothing whatsoever that would give the slightest bit of pause to the next firm that wants to do the same thing.
And the fact that "well, those are the rules of the game" doesn't wash. See, that kind of attitude was probably expressed by a members of the press back when women were struggling for the right to vote. The fight to stop denying the vote to half the population of a democratic republic because of their gender will go down in history as a much more serious struggle than denying press access to investment presentations, but I'd argue the way you affect change is the same - you act, and when you are denied, you act again, and when you are denied, you act again, and you keep on acting until your will prevails.
It's not that simple?
I'd say in many cases it is and this is one of them.
Things don't get changed by waving the white flag, lying down, and letting people put tire marks all over your chest.
Good trading,
Tom
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