Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : CNBC -- critique. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: swisstrader who wrote (5670)	5/18/2000 5:51:00 PM
From: Gary M. Reed	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 17683

Point taken, but let me offer up a couple more analogies to your latest post: 1.) the National Enquirer has a higher circulation than U.S. News & World Report, ergo (according to your analogy) the National Enquirer is the more credible source of news (and Elvis is indeed alive and working at a 7-Eleven in Cowlick, Alabama). 2.) Money magazine has a much higher circulation than Outstanding Investor Digest. Ergo, it is a better source of investment ideas. I could go on and on...Chevrolet sells more cars than Mercedes, so that must mean Chevrolet makes better cars. You get the picture. CNBC has a larger viewership because: 1.) it is geared toward Joe Sixpack. Trust me, the day Bloomberg sends an anchor to Chicago to wax poetic over "Tommy the Tomato" and "Cedric the Cucumber" neckties during market hours...when they have daily Buy-Sell-Hold segments where retail investors can call-in and ask the Designated Shill of the Day about their 100 shares of Cisco or Dell...when they stick a young girl on the floor of the NYSE and have her 'oooh' and 'ahhh' as she's trampled by traders ("hey folks, here I am, at the AOL post, OOOH AOL just opened up two-sixteenths, and OH WOW Micron just opened up 4 sixteenths--these tech stocks are CHARGING AHEAD!" <take that, LambChop!>), when call-in segments are transformed into admiration societies...well, that will be the day you can put a fork into Bloomberg TV. They are geared for the serious investor--admittedly a much smaller market target--and have left the "Investing Is Fun!" niche to CNBC and Oprah when she has that Suze Orman as a guest (oops, Bill Griffeth has had her as a guest too...let's see, her #1 financial tip on Griffeth's show was to look in your couch cushions for change--and no I'm not making that up--where else but PowerLunch can you go for cutting 'financial' tips like that?!!). I'll tell you what would make CNBC really entertaining--they should've had Griffeth get liquored up at Harry Caray's this morning and have him do the show totally sauced--THAT would've been Must See TV. Hey, it's all about the ratings, right? 2.) CNBC is on most cable systems, whereas Bloomberg and CNNfn are not. Again, let's look at the facts: positioning a channel on a cable system is more about strong-arming and company politics and has very little to do with placing the best quality channels. If the tables were turned and CNNfn was on most cable channels and CNBC was not, the ratings would be reversed. That's not to say that CNBC is pure trash...there are many parts I like. I like the stories Faber uncovers...I enjoy Kernan's occasional tongue-in-cheek humor...and there are a few Squawk guests who I consider "can't miss TV". But the bandwagon crapola ills me...case in point, the DELL Pep Rally last week. In their rush to appease the 'mindless wonders' who own DELL, no one had the balls to point out that "Emperor Dell has no clothes." Again, that's due to ratings...bash DELL and tell the earnings story like it is and they'd get plenty of hate e-mail and Joan Sixpack would change the channel to Jerry Springer. And I always have remote-in-hand at 2:00 EST when the "It's All About Me Fawn-A-Thon" comes on.