Grandich: Most business journalism is TOUT TV

Peter Grandich, a financial advisor who also publishes a newsletter about the metals and mining industries, has some interesting thoughts about financial journalism in his latest issue.

Grandich wrote, “It’s also been my firm belief of the existence of a ‘Don’t Worry, Be Happy’ crowd within the financial arena. These folks always, without exception, paint the most optimistic outlook–not because it’s their whole-hearted belief, but because it sells.

“And certain parts of the financial media are willing conduits. I’m not trying to be sarcastic when I call CNBC-TV “TOUT-TVâ€?. Once a ‘fair and balance’ news channel that gave both bear and bull equal footing, CNBC has now become virtually one-sided in its reporting. You would sooner find a needle in a haystack than see and hear a bearish stock market/economic forecaster on their broadcast.

“And, if you do find one, hosts like Mark Haines or Joe Kernen will try to eat his/her lunch before long. These anchormen have openly cheered when the market rose and frown when it was down. If you agree, I encourage you to watch Bloomberg television and better yet, Canada’s financial channel, ‘Report on Business’ Television (ROB-TV). There, you will see and hear fair and balance reporting without any egos.

“CNBC’s last fair and balance guy was Neal Cavuto (now with FOX News, ironically). ROB-TV has many distinguish reporters and the single best TV financial journalist in North America today, Mr. Jim O’Connell. Not only is Mr. O’Connell brilliant yet humble, but he always asks the questions you would in his position. Sadly, yours truly can’t stomach TOUT-TV for more than a minute or two but thankfully is able to watch ROB-TV live on his computer for a minuscule yearly cost (see home page of http://www.robtv.com/ for information.)

“One more comment on certain aspects of the financial media from a personal experience that I believe clearly shows the biases against anything that may not fit into the bullish category: This past fall, I was asked to pen an article about gold for a ‘very’ well-known nationally-circulated business magazine. After completing the article, the ‘Features Editor’, sent me back the edited version.

“I wrote back and said in part ‘… I’m sorry but I can’t in good faith put my name to this article. You took virtually all I said in the interview with the reporter and discarded it for a gold story mostly about just one element of the gold outlook-China. Unlike your version, I don’t believe it’s the driving force for gold and the article has nothing about all the other factors I had previously offered. Anyone familiar with my work would question this article knowing it’s not the key reason for my bullishness.'”

Read more here.