Categories: OLD Media Moves

Stop the CEO porn about Buffett

Gary Weiss writes for TheStreet.com about how the business news media is too fawning in its coverage of Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett.

Weiss writes, “Welcome to CEO porn season, Berkshire Hathaway edition. ‘CEO porn’ is inside-baseball journalism terminology that I would define as ‘overemphasis on the (ghost-written) writings and overhyped achievements of chief executive officers, with negative or contrary elements given little or no attention.’ I respect Buffett as much as the next journo. I’ve met him and found him charming and likable. I’ve been a customer of his insurance and (until recently) candy subsidiaries for decades.

“But enough already! The Warren Buffett CEO Porn epidemic is getting out of hand. I beg my colleagues in the media: Make it stop.

“This year, the fascination with every word emanating from Buffett is even more embarrassingly lavish than usual, and the reason is not that Buffett has been especially prescient or skillful in the preceding year. In fact, as I’ll be coming to in a moment, one of the pronouncements in his shareholder letter was downright goofy. The cause of the media’s hyperfocus has been totally predictable: An 81-year-old CEO may be handing over the reins of Berkshire Hathaway any time now.

“The hand-wringing over this in the media has been remarkable. It’s as if the media were suffering from a kind of premature separation anxiety. What makes it ludicrous is the fact that his deputy, Charlie Munger, is old enough to be a World War II veteran, which he is. Compounding the absurdity is that Buffett, utilizing a false-suspense trick straight out of vaudeville-era press agentry, has said the Berkshire board has picked his successor, but that his lips are sealed.”