Categories: OLD Media Moves

The most important journalist in biz news is…Neil Cavuto?

Ryan Chittum of Columbia Journalism Review argues that recent advertising from Fox Business Network arguing that its anchor Neil Cavuto is the most important journalist in business news is a bit of a stretch.

Chittum writes, “Fox Business is a ratings desert, of course, so the network really is hitching a ride on Fox News, where a million or so senior citizens do actually watch Cavuto to find out what’s affecting their Walmart stocks and muni-bond portfolios.

“News Corp. isn’t known for its understatement (except when it comes to its role in hacking and bribing people, mind you) or its modesty. But even so there is something off-key about running a half-page house ad in The Wall Street Journal that claims the most important business journalist isn’t at your world-class business paper but some guy who gabs in between pharmaceutical ads and Goldline pitches on the TV and who helps run a network that’s not doing very well at all.

“But, you ask, what about Lou Dobbs? Good question. Fox Business gives him his own half-page ad in today’s Journal:

“Sorry about that, Lou, you’re ‘Honest. Direct. Independent,’ and your interviews are indeed ‘POWERFUL,’ but Cavuto’s more important. Shoulda been an SVP.”

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.

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