ÿþ<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1"> <title>OnlineColumnist&reg;.com: Duke's Damage Control</title> <meta name="generator" content="Adobe GoLive 4"> <style type="text/css"> .style1 { font-size: x-large; font-weight: bold; } </style> </head> <body bgcolor="white" vlink="black"> <center> <table cool width="624" height="2719" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" gridx="16" showgridx gridy="16" showgridy> <tr height="79"> <td width="116" height="118" rowspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"><a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"><img height="110" width="62" src="images/discobolos.logo.transp.gif" border="0"></a></td> <td width="24" height="118" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="465" height="79" colspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="140"><img height="75" width="450" src="images/banner.GIF"></td> <td width="18" height="118" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="1" height="79"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="79"></td> </tr> <tr height="39"> <td width="182" height="39"></td> <td width="283" height="39" valign="top" align="left" xpos="322"><a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"><img height="14" width="267" src="images/divisionofNEW.GIF" border="0"></a></td> <td width="1" height="39"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="39"></td> </tr> <tr height="26"> <td width="624" height="26" colspan="6" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"> <table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="black" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td> <table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="#99ffcc" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4"> <tr> <td align="center"> <div align="left"> <a href="index.html"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong>HOME</strong></font></a><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> &#149; <a href="articlesindex.html">ARTICLES</a> &#149; <a href="books.html">BOOKS</a> &#149; <a href="teflon.html">THE </a><a href="teflon.html">TEFLON</a><a href="teflon.html"> REPORT</a> &#149; <a href="mailto:letters@onlinecolumnist.com">REACTIONS</a> &#149; <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">ABOUT DISCOBOLOS</a></strong></font></div> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr height="1"> <td width="116" height="2574" rowspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"><img height="172" width="111" src="images/johninframe3.jpg"></td> <td width="489" height="1" colspan="3"></td> <td width="18" height="2574" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="1" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="1"></td> </tr> <tr height="2573"> <td width="489" height="2573" colspan="3" align="left" xpos="116" content valign="top" csheight="2573"> <font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="5"><b> <br /> Stewart Hits CNBC</b></font> <p><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><b>by John M. Curtis<br> (310) 204-8700</b><br> </font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><i>Copyright March 18, 2009<br> All Rights Reserved.</i></font></p> <p><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span class="style1">C</span>omedy Central comedian John Stewart touched a raw nerve at NBC for his March 12 smack-down with CNBC s host of  Mad Money Jim Cramer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Stewart blasted Cramer for CNBC complicity during the latest Wall Street meltdown, calling Cramer essentially a shill to the financial community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Cramer offered little defense of Stewarts main criticism that CNBC acts as cheerleaders for its corporate sponsors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Cramer s wild bravado was transformed into passive apologist on Stewart s  The Daily Show, offering little defense of himself or the network he represents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> Everybody wants to find a scapegoat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>That s human nature, said NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker, speaking at a media industry conference, dismissing Stewarts critique as unfounded hyperbole. Reacting to Stewart s stinging critique, Zucker tried to rehabilitate his network s tainted credibility.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Nothing hurts credibility more of a business news network than associating<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> journalism with undue influence from corporate sponsors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> Crossing the line between journalism and corporate sponsorship invites the kind of skepticism that turns off viewers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>During the latest market downturn, over $13 trillion in household wealth was vaporized, leaving ordinary investors skeptical of the advice received on allegedly respected business programs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Zucker felt obligated to respond because Stewart s show opened up a can of worms about the relationship between journalism, entertainment and corporate sponsorship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Stewart called Cramer out on statements about how, as a fund manager, he manipulated the media and affected share prices.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Stewart wanted Cramer to confess to allowing corporate sponsors to determine overly zealous news coverage reported on CNBC.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Zucker s overreaction stems from the very real possibility that frustrated viewers could connect the dots and see CNBC in bed with icorporate sponsors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Revelations about how, during the Bush years, the vice president s office impacted the pre- and ongoing Iraq war coverage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Formerly respected New York Times journalist Judith Miller was criticized for allowing former Vice President Dick Cheney s office to supply the intelligence about Saddam s weapons of mass destruction, especially his nuclear and biological weapons programs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Years of front-page stories on the New York Times boosted the credibility of Saddam s arsenal of WMD.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>When U.S. forces after the invasion found no illicit weapons, legitimate questions were raised by the role of journalists in interpreting the factual accuracy of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>news stories.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Miller s incestuous access to Cheney s office inadvertently promoted the war.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Attacking Stewart accomplishes two things:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>It (a) discredits the message and the messenger and (b) raises doubts about the story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Stewart questioned whether CNBC s stable of businesses reporters work on behalf of powerful corporations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> Just because someone who mocks authority says something doesn t make it so, call Stewart s remarks  completely out of line. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Zucker gets it wrong:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>If Cramer raised doubts CNBC s corporate sponsors or, for that matter, the legitimacy of the stock market, that would be blasphemous or  completely out-of-line. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>There s nothing out-of-line for Stewart to question whether CNBC s reporting reflects the prerogatives of its corporate sponsors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>It s out-of- line for the New York Times to print  newsworthy articles about the merits of a drug when the drug maker spends millions in advertising, expecting a front-page news story.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Zucker felt inclined to rehabilitate his network because Stewart raised some serious doubts without Cramer rushing to CNBC s defense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>During the last market meltdown in 2000, Goldma Sach s Abbey Joseph Cohen routinely hyped stocks on CNBC before the market crashed, taking the Dow down from 12,750 in Feb. 2000 to about 7,500 in July 2003.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>No one questioned CNBC s relationship to Goldman Sachs, offering Cohen almost unlimited daily access.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Calling his reporters  terrific and the networkd a  go-to place for financial news Zucker continued his diatribe against Stewart at the McGraw-Hill Media Summit in Manhattan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> It s unfair to CNBC and to the business media in media in general, said Zucker.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> I don t think you can blame what happened here on the business media, stating the obvious, deliberately missing Stewart s point about CNBC s cheerleading.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Zucker s vociferous defense of CNBC raises more eyebrows for what it says about Cramer s poor showing on  The Daily Show. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Cramer did little to rehab CNBC, while Stewart reminded viewers that market manipulation is real and dangerous to ordinary investors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Instead overreacting, Zucker should have acknowledged Stewart s criticism as valid, promising to balance cheerleading with healthy criticism for CNBC s viewers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> When there is a lot of red on the screen, historically people don t want to watch that, said Zucker, admitting, in effect, that it s tough to make hay in bear markets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Stewart took on one of the loudest pro-Wall Street voices on CNBC, asking him to admit he s more cheerleader than news analyst.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Cramer never disputed Stewart s criticism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Zucker s attack shows that Stewart hit a raw nerve, exposing the ugly side of CNBC s business news coverage. </p> <p><u><b>About the Author</b></u></p> <p><b>John M. Curtis</b> writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He's editor OnlineColumnist.com and author of <a href="books.html">Dodging The Bullet</a> and <a href="books.html">Operation Charisma</a>.<br> </p> <p></p> </td> <td width="1" height="2573"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="2573"></td> </tr> <tr height="1" cntrlrow> <td width="116" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="116" height="1"></td> <td width="24" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="24" height="1"></td> <td width="182" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="182" height="1"></td> <td width="283" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="283" height="1"></td> <td width="18" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="18" height="1"></td> <td width="1" height="1"></td> </tr> </table> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" width="597"> <tr> <td><font size="1" face="Arial,Geneva,Helvetica"> <hr noshade size="1"> </font><a href="index.html"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong>Home</strong></font></a><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> || <a href="articlesindex.html">Articles</a> || <a href="books.html">Books</a> || <a href="teflon.html">The Teflon Report</a> || <a href="mailto:letters@onlinecolumnist.com">Reactions</a> || <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">About Discobolos</a></strong></font> <div align="left"> <p><font size="1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">This site designed, developed and hosted by the experts at</font><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"> <a href="http://www.cmeonline.net" target="_blank"><img height="30" width="138" src="images/cmelogoANIM.gif" border="0" align="absmiddle"></a></font></p> </div> <p><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">&copy;1999-2002 <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">Discobolos Consulting Services, Inc.</a><br> (310) 204-8300<br> All Rights Reserved. </font></td> </tr> </table> </center> </body> </html>