Categories: OLD Media Moves

Why Cramer’s comments about biz journalism hurt

Dow Jones Newswires columnist Al Lewis writes about the comments made by CNBC “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer on Saturday at the Society of American Business Editors and Writers‘ conference about the current state of business journalism.

Lewis writes, “If you watch his show and you buy his stock picks, you are not really doing what he really recommends, which is to think and analyze for yourself. The show, he has long said, teaches the thought process behind investing. It’s not meant to be a hot-tip line. And Cramer often admits when he gets it way wrong.

“It hurts taking criticism from a man who gets plenty of criticism, himself. It hurts being confronted by a guy who bears some resemblance. But what Cramer told us at SABEW was right. Too often we’ve focused more on the bank than the rogue banker.

“‘It’s not just the banks,’ Cramer continued. ‘We have let some companies get off with consistent bad behavior and have not given their CEOs enough scrutiny for their misdeeds.

“‘I think our coverages bear a role in this and we are often as culpable as the government itself because the government responds to the press in these instances. We in this room are letting these execs off the hook. Where’s the shame? Where’s everyone else’s Wall of Shame?'”

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.