The Uselessness of CNBC

The point of journalism is to inform the public. But it seems that whenever business and finance is the subject, the lines between duly informing the public and supplying entertainment, or even negative information is blurred.  Journalism and news reporting should exist like it does in any other sector: as a check to the powerful people in the know for those of us that don’t spend our afternoons at the New York Athletic Club playing squash with Bernie Madoff. (Did i say New York Athletic Club? I meant Manhattan Correctional Center. And did I say playing squash? I meant stabbing).

Now, arguably, when the New York Times breaks a story on the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping and Data mining programs, it is supplying information that the public would not otherwise know.  When CBS reports on prisoner abuse in Iraq it is providing evidence of actions taken on US citizens behalf that they were ignorant of.  For better or for worse, viewers are educated through these articles of journalism.  As with any other report which calls itself a piece of news, there are abstract journalistic tenets of Objectivity and Transparency: Where did this information come from? Who is reporting it and why?  These are all questions (good) news reporters answer in their goal of informing their viewership with information that they cant get anywhere else (or as quickly).

Financial networks, like CNBC, unfortunately have separated themselves from mainstream journalism to fit their business coverage and have swayed away from the original clientele of 24 hour news networks, that being the uninformed masses.  Instead of catering to those of us who don’t know that derivatives, toxic assets and credit-default swaps they are catering to day traders and people at least a little acquainted with the markets (somewhere between those who use Bloomberg terminals and complete illiteracy).  This puts CNBC not as a check or a balance out to the esoteric performance of the financial machines, but just another arm of the larger institution.

The employees of CNBC are not journalists, they are at the very least correspondents, at the most talking heads who are constantly speculating but, especially in a time of crisis, really dont know anything more then anyone else in the industry.  They don’t even provide the service of explaining to the American people basic business jargon and instead puke out their opinions about the “losers” of the market and how much they suck.  And I don’t care where correspondents like Rick Santelli come from (probably from the same place CNN’s Rick Sanchez does if you go by how much each yells at their viewers for no reason), but they aren’t any smarter then the people they put down, and with every word move farther and farther from a solution to our current problem.

Also, Santelli apparently has no idea how a representative democracy works: you cant have an election on the internet for something that’s how people like Stephen Colbert get their name’s on space ships.

Of course, a solution is out there, but it begins with a responsible and informed public who are educated by a responsible and informed journalistic organ dedicated to the financial markets.  And while Cramer’s appearance on the Daily Show was little more then a stunt to express some angst and anger, we need something a little bigger then a half hour cable show to put a face on American Financial Evil.