The lack of wisdom in financial journalism

Max Zeledon, a former research analyst at International Data Group in San Francisco who runs a digital consulting firm, writes about financial journalism in the wake of running across “Mad Money” and Jim Cramer on CNBC last night.

Zeledon writes, “Maybe I’m being unfair to him because he is an entertainer after all, but his network is not. His network claims to be the crème de la crème of financial reporting. That really got me thinking. It’s time to demythologize this crap.

“The job of financial journalists is to scrutinize the financial system and the players who influence it. It’s not to kiss their asses and play cheerleader to bankers and their boards. Their job is to look for corruption and ethical lapses. I’ll even dare say their job is to protect the little guy because without them she stands no chance. Take a look at political reporters. They go after politicians with purpose. But in the world of finance the scandals are not revealed until the corpse is actually bloated and the stench is too strong to ignore.

“I have a hard time seeing the same characters who missed this crisis pontificating on TV and print, preaching the same free market dogma that got us into this shithole, rewriting history while events dissolve in our minds, hoping we forget what actually happened by repeating new lies. Then there is Fox Business Network and their new brand of financial reporting. But again, I think this was meant to be an entertainment show.

“However, it’s smart guys like Charlie Gasparino and Andrew Ross Sorkin who really break our hearts because they go easy on Wall Street sociopaths simply because they are too afraid to lose their hard won access to the inner circle.”

Read more here.