Categories: OLD Media Moves

Jon Stewart on biz media gibberish

Rich Smith of The Motley Fool notes that Jon Stewart of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” took a well-deserved swipe at the gibberish that many in the business media have been usinmg to explain the current state of the economy.

Smith noted how Stewart and guest Gerri Willis, CNN’s personal finance editor, both misinterpreted a “Fast Money” excerpt from CNBC.

Smith wrote, “The real irony here is that Stewart actually managed to prove his point, albeit accidentally. Despite having hours, perhaps days, to parse ‘bald guy’s’ statement, he ultimately came up with gibberish. That’s probably forgivable in a comedy host, but I’m amazed that CNN’s ‘Personal Finance Editor’ could listen to the same statement — twice! — and still wind up getting it 100% wrong.

“Kind of makes you wonder whether the talking heads on TV are a case of the blind leading the 20/20-sighted. But it does give us a pretty clear answer to Stewart’s question: Can these networks help us understand what’s going on with the economy?

Answer: Nope. Not if they can’t figure it out themselves.”

Read more here.

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.

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