Categories: OLD Media Moves

CNBC-Fox Biz Network battle overblown

Jonathan Berr writes on BloggingStocks.com that all of the writing about the pending battle between CNBC and Fox Business Network is much ado about nothing.

Berr wrote, “CNBC’s mission is to try and convince individual investors they must act RIGHT NOW to avoid financial ruin or to gain immediate riches. That seems to speak directly to Main Street.

“Murdoch, though, is a patient man. People thought he was nuts to take on Time Warner Inc.‘sÂ CNN, and now Fox News rules the ratings. He keeps the New York Post going because he wants to stick it to the liberal media establishment A.K.A. The New York Times. Power motivates him almost as much as money. That’s why the media tycoon doesn’t care if Fox Business News isn’t immediately profitable or even if it takes some time to get into the black. He’s trying to prove a point.

“The biggest challenge facing Fox Business News is the same one facing the General Electric Co.Â cable channel: attracting an audience. For most people who don’t read stock market blogs, business news is pretty dry stuff. That’s why CNBC’s anchors always yell the news written in their teleprompters to make things seem more exciting.”

Read more here.Â

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.