Categories: OLD Media Moves

Mystified by the market coverage

CBSÂ Sunday Morning commentator Nancy Giles says for all the news and media dedicated to the stock market, she still doesn’t understand it, and that doesn’t seem right.

Giles said, “Money news is everywhere: On radio, financial reports at 26 and 56 minutes after the hour; on TV, stock info scrolls by underneath the news; at the bank, money shows like ‘Power Lunch’ and ‘Closing Bell’ play on big TVs to mesmerize you while you stand in line. Even when I’m on the elevator, tiny screens show news, weather, sports and stock updates. By the time I exit that elevator, I’m nauseous.

“Standard and Poors. NASDAQ. Dollar-yen ratios, points, downdrafts, and all that yelling from the trading floor. The money reports blast by with a crisp efficiency. What does it mean?

“I don’t know, but when the Dow is up I go, ‘Oh, good. The Dow is up.’ It’s the ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes,’ a bad production of Shakespeare and most Sam Shepherd plays, all rolled into one. You nod and look pensive and laugh at the appropriate moments, but you don’t get it, but you don’t want to admit you don’t get it, so you pretend you do get it. A market matrix? Hard currency? Commodity ETNs? Say what?”

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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.