"Bulls and Bears" should stick to business

The Fox TV business show “Bulls and Bears” was slammed by the Web site NewsHounds.com for turning itself into a political show rather than discussing business news. Host Brenda Buttner took most of the criticism.

The site stated, “Buttner asked her panel of experts: ‘Is Wall Street worried Iran actually wants World War III?’ Asking whether Wall Street is ‘worried’ about something is a favorite show tactic for inserting raw politics into what is supposed to be a business show.

“This week, it worked about as well as it usually does. Hawks like Scott Bleier, of hybridinvestors.com, wanted to use force against Iran because he said that’s the only thing Iran will respect. And Pat Dorsey, of morningstar.com, said Iran’s nuclear program is a background problem for Wall Street right now.

“Then Dorsey exposed the fallacy of using Buttner’s question for discussion on a business show, saying, ‘I think what we need to do right here is separate out what Wall Street cares about and what Wall Street is paying attention to, which is really not Iran right now, with what our political leaders should or should not be doing. And long term, not allowing Iran to attain nuclear weapons as we allowed North Korea to, is a very good plan and it’s something that I think just about anybody would support, but the market does have a short attention span and it’s just not what Wall Street’s paying attention to right now.’

“Now, if everybody on the show said that, and tried to talk about Wall Street, Buttner would have no show. She would have to do a little more work than simply grabbing a topic from the headlines and making it into a question by adding the phrase, ‘Is Wall Street worried about (fill in the blank).'”

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