Categories: OLD Media Moves

The folly of the financial press

John Crudele of the New York Post writes about the problem with the financial press, especially television networks, today.

Crudele writes, “The problem with TV is this: These stations have a load of time to fill. And they couldn’t possibly fill 18 hours a day of programming without calling upon Wall Street “experts” to give their opinion.

“And, for the most part, these ‘experts’ are shills for the financial community. Why wouldn’t you expect that? The ‘experts’ on TV make their money trading stocks and convincing people of their knowledge.

“They don’t make even a fraction of their money from going on television.

“So they ‘talk their book,’ as they say in the industry. And the cable stations try to give some semblance of honesty by disclosing that these people have positions in certain stocks.

“Big deal — a footnote at the bottom of the screen trying to offset the biased opinions coming out of their mouths.”

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.