OLD Media Moves

What guests think of CNBC

February 25, 2010

Barry Ritholtz writes on The Big Picture about a recent lunch he had with some analysts, money managers and economists, and the conversation got around to their appearances on CNBC.

Ritholtz writes, “The consensus is everyone at the table wants to do less of it.

“The reasons given:

-Producers try to tailor the discussion (‘Be more Bullish/Bearish’);
-Too time consuming;
-Law of diminishing returns — the benefits are less and less each appearance;
-Nuance has become a dirty word (‘Pick a Letter to describe the economy’);
-Last minute cancellations when ‘better’ names become available;
-Dumbing down of the discourse (One person called it ‘Foxification’)

“I then mention that while I still do a ton of media, I have become Persona Non Grata at CNBC.

“There was an issue with some really obnoxious blog comments (they were deleted); I started asking not to be booked with really dumb guests (I also requested no Octobox). I did do Fox a few times (But really, who cares about that? I do all media outlets on behalf of my firm).”