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To: patron_anejo_por_favor who wrote (143671)	1/14/2002 6:20:18 PM
From: broadstbull	Respond to of 436258

patron he has always been pretty good for writing about the inner workings on the street. Just don't trade on his picks <g>......... Party Line Muffles Criticism of Mutual Funds By James J. Cramer 01/14/2002 03:29 PM EST Read More Click here for the latest from James J. Cramer Why doesn't anyone else besides me talk about the difficulty of tough reporting on the mutual fund sector? Why is it not a story to be done by someone, given the immense ad budgets of the mutual funds and their thin skins when talking about poor performance? Nobody wants to say point blank, "I don't want to see any tough articles about mutual funds," but the absurdity of the lack of tough articles about funds, or, at least, the kind of sensitive nice articles about funds that deserve chastising, makes me just plain sick to my stomach. Related Stories 10 Questions With Merrill Lynch Healthcare's Jordan Schreiber Fund Investors' New Motto: Don't Do It Yourself Trading in the Spotlight Would Burn Fund Managers 10 Lessons for Fund Investors 2002 Preview: A Mutual Fund Wish List Can you imagine, for example, a sports section in this country that didn't lambaste a pro coach after his second big losing year? Heck, Marty Schottenheimer just got fired from the Redskins after one losing year, and I actually thought he did a great job with that franchise. But in mutual funds? Well, let's just say the party line is "speak no evil." When I look through the magazines that come out, other than Fortune, I can't recall a tough article about mutual fund performance since my piece in Worth challenging Fidelity's performance five years ago. When I read through Chuck Jaffe's mutual fund column, which is supposed to be a hard-hitting analysis of funds, after the second disastrous year of fund investing, whom does he choose to attack? Why, he attacks me, for investing in them close to their peak. How that got past America's editors is an embarrassment. Similarly, Kiplinger's had two columnists attacking me for investing in these funds. I thought that perhaps the gloves would be off in the mutual fund press after 2001 closed out with all of those bad numbers. Nah, same old same old. In fact, the focus was on some of the winners of the fourth quarter, which tended to be the same guys who were clocked so badly in the previous three quarters. Nothing's changed. One day, perhaps after a third awful year for these funds, maybe, just maybe, an editor not at TheStreet.com will assign a couple of hard-hitting pieces about what went wrong at Putnam or Invesco or Firsthand or Van Wagoner or Janus. Maybe if all of the editors agree that they should write negative pieces about the industry, then the advertisers will have no choice but to keep advertising. But I wouldn't bet on it. The stakes are too high. Better just to continue to ignore them. Or blame the people who invest in them for the mistake! Now that's financial journalism justice for you.