CNBC optimistic, Bloomberg sober in stock market coverage

D.J. Waletzky has a nice found-up of how the business news media covered the drop in the Dow Jones industrial average on Tuesday on the MediaChannel web site. The drop was the biggest since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Waletzky wrote, “CNBC was optimistic even in the face of disaster. CNBC talking head Larry Kudlow was unflappable: ‘I think people should stay in for the long run and be optimistic because free-market capitalism is the best way to create wealth and prosperity.’ Counters another guest, ‘I think that’s a philosophy, not a trading recommendation.'”

Meanwhile, he added, “Bloomberg News was more sober, and more specific about analyzing the causes of the market drop, noting (in a separate article than the one excerpted below) that although the bond markets rallied, gold (traditionally a safe bet in down markets) also slipped yesterday.”

And later, Waletzky pointed out that CNN focused on the debt side of the issue, while Reuters mentioned that there was concern that equity valuations were too high.

See the review here.