Alex Alvarez of Mediaite is critical of Fox Business Network‘s coverage recently, which included a segment on hats being worn at the Kentucky Derby and an interview with singer Cee Lo Green about his cat’s new Meow Mix commercial.
Alvarez writes, “Of course, Friday is Funday, so we could give FBN a free pass. But then yesterday, FBN aired a segment with singer Cee Lo Green, accompanied by his cat Perfect (or Purrfect?), to discuss his new Meow Mix commercial, because…that’s business news?
“You may recall that FBN recently canceled it’s entire primetime lineup (save for Dobbs and Stossel) in an attempt to re-bill the network as more ‘business-oriented.’ Even though we’ll admit the Cee Lo and fancy hat segments were entertaining, they prompt the question of how, really, is this even remotely considered ‘business news.’
“To their credit, however, FBN did scrap Imus in the Morning today to air a special report on JPMorgan’s $2 billion (Yes, billion. With a B!) trading loss disclosure.
“And, to be even fairer, CNBC also does sometimes air questionable programming (see: last Friday’s housing market interview with…Vanilla Ice, who does, to be even fairer, star in a show about renovating a house). But… CNBC never gutted their entire primetime lineup in an effort to be taken more seriously by the business news-consuming viewers.”
Read more here.