Categories: OLD Media Moves

Getting his CEO subjects to squirm

Jon Friedman, the media columnist for Marketwatch.com, writes Wednesday about how CNBC anchor Mark Haines — who died Tuesday night at the age of 65 — performed during interviews.

Friedman writes, “Haines could be a gruff but endearing presence on the air. He often had a sly, skeptical smile as he discussed the news of the day. It was his way of telling the viewers watching at home that he was on their side.

“No, he didn’t quite trust CEOs’ platitudes, and he could get his subjects to squirm a bit when he pressed them.

“Haines hailed from the New York metropolitan area. His career began as an attorney. Later he was an on-air presence at TV stations in New York, Philadelphia and Providence, R.I., before he gravitated to CNBC.

“On Wednesday morning, his CNBC colleagues remembered him fondly. Still obviously in shock, one after another, they told moving, heartfelt stories about a teammate they respected.”

Read more here. Haines was once conducting an interview with Rep. Barney Frank about executive compensation that became so heated that Frank walked off.

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.