Jon C. Ogg, writing Sunday on the 24/7 Wall Street web site, wonders if there were ulterior motives in this week’s Barron’s cover story on CNBC “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer‘s stock picks.
Ogg wrote, “Dow Jones owns Barron’s, and Dow Jones is about to become part of Rupert Murdoch’s giant News Corp. It just seems hard to think that the article isn’t a bit of ‘getting in on the in with Rupert,’ particularly as News Corp is about to launch its own competing business news channel to compete against CNBC. Here is a link to the whole article at Barron’s Online for your review.
“The more stocks someone covers, the more ‘marketesque’ returns they will have and the commissions compared to an index fund may drag it lower. But in good times and bad, people love to talk about their best stock pick. Sometimes it will be better and sometimes worse, but it comes down to a basket and the more diverse and broad a basket gets the more it is going to look like the market. It seems every media focus wants to slam Jim Cramer at some point. Sometimes I agree with his picks and sometimes not, so creating a ‘Full Basket of Cramer Picks’ and trying to assign a performance to it just seems beyond reality. Besides that, media get great coverage when they slam another pundit. He’s loud, highly opinionated, a risk taker, and boisterous. But no critic seems to get the point of Jim Cramer, even though Barron’s lightly addresses the good side and his track record. This is about a lifelong process, not about every single individual pick for a week or a month or a year. He’s trying to get you to think about the process, and yes of course recommendations and opinions come into play.”
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