Kudos to Jon Stewart for overwhelming Jim Cramer to the point of speechlessness in their joint appearance on the Daily Show Thursday. It made for great television. But, let’s not forget, that’s all it was, great television. The economic crisis wasn’t solved, and CNBC isn’t going to change its stripes.
As impressive as Stewart was, he seems misguided on two points.
First, he gives way too much credit to Cramer. Cramer is a TV personality. Period. Cramer actually used the E word (entertainment) in his defense towards the end of the interview. I have no knowledge of Cramer’s true level of success as a hedge fund manager, but it strikes me as odd that a successful hedge fund manager would become a TV personality. I’m not saying it can’t happen, but if it did happen it only happened once.
Second, CNBC is for entertainment purposes only. I’ve had the opportunity to be a guest on the network on more than one occasion, and when you see the process from the other side of the camera you get a real good feel for the level of detail involved.
In advance of your appearance you get a call from the producer. The producer goes over some basic information and some general questions. This is your opportunity to get the facts straight, and generally the producer appreciates the effort. Unfortunately this information tends to leak out of the bucket by the time the interview actually takes place. This shouldn’t be too big of a surprise; the host is on TV for several hours a day and rolls from one interview to another. The prep time spent with the producer may have been upwards of 30 minutes for a three-minute segment. But the host has nowhere near that amount of time to prepare as the host also has to be on TV most of the day. This is a source of frustration for the guest but is a true disservice to the viewer.
Also understand that conflict makes for great TV. Stewart has been rightly critical of CNBC for fawning over “rock star” CEOs and failing to challenge them. In truth, however, many of these hosts DO try and get into it with their guests, but they don’t do it in an effort to get to the truth. They do it to create conflict because conflict and drama make great TV.
One final point. Everyone in the financial business knows most of these TV personalities have a poor understanding of business and finance. Most professionals that have CNBC on during the day have the sound off.
I’m not saying not to watch CNBC or other financial news channels. In fact, they do a great job disseminating market news (here I mean things like statistical releases, earnings reports etc.). Learn to recognize when the news reporting stops and the analysis/entertainment begins.