Slate: Why You've Stopped Watching CNBC
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I get annoyed at CNBC when they report government statistics as if they were quoting scripture. They ignore the constant upward revisions in last week's unemployment data, which happens every week and makes this week's losses look less bad. And why they don't report reconstructed M3 as many web sites have done lately (hint: it's plunging). While it may sound arcane it's a lot more important than hearing the prewritten patter of the CEO of Amalgamated Cowbells.
Several months ago there were guests on CNBC laughing at Peter Schiff for suggesting an imminent mortgage meltdown. This was soon followed by the mortgage meltdown. I often wonder why CNBC doesn't show that clip (available on YouTube) to those same laughing guests and give them the opportunity to explain what was so funny. (Are Schiff's current predictions worthwhile? I don't know, but I'm not laughing. Nor am I laughing at Abby Cohen's rosy scenarios. Predicting markets is hard. Shooting the messenger is stupid.)
There's a show on CNBC at 5pm Eastern called Fast Money which, 6-12 months ago, was a real hoot. It was sort of a McLaughlin Group for the stock market, with a host and rotating panel of guests each of whom was some sort of money manager or pro trader, with no allegiance to anything except profit. The top two (IMO) were host Dylan Ratigan and panelist Jeff Macke, both of whom were evicted when their contracts were up. Evidently the CNBC execs prefer serving financial pabulum instead of hard reporting replete with finger shaking. One wonders if this is entirely voluntary.
Yes, you can have political differences (e.g., Liesman vs. Santelli). Every viewer is used to (occasionally heated) political argument. But when it comes to the financial equivalent of Woodward and Bernstein, CNBC has taken a pass ... and the audience appears to have noticed.