Hey Maria, you need to be 65 to receive Medicare! In the rapidly devolving cable news world, staged debate and provocation replace reporting and information. Armed with prepared questions, talking points and a cursory understanding of the topic, news personalities referee debates. These “talk” programs are much less expensive to produce than traditional news programs that rely on large teams of reporters, mobile camera trucks, researchers, etc. The ratings are better and it’s a trend that is unlikely to change. Unfortunately, these news personalities increasingly editorialize about subjects they do not completely understand. CNBC Anchor Maria Bartiromo provides the latest example as Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) attempts to explain that Medicare is government managed health care and patients are very satisfied:
Bartiromo: How come you don’t use it? You don’t have it. How come you don’t have it?
Weiner: Because I’m not 65.
Bartiromo: Yeah… c’mon!
As we’ve noted in other posts, CNBC and Larry Kudlow don’t have a sterling record of providing reliable or objective economic assessments either.
The House chart was a clever tactic. In reality, the existing health care system is no more complex, as demonstrated in a chart by the New Republic .
The speed and repetition of the use of this chart reveals the coordinated anti- health reform agenda of these specific cable programs and their operating mantra: if you say it over and over again, it becomes true . . . at least in the minds of some viewers.
It also underscores the dreadfully low standards for newsworthiness at these outlets. A mocking health reform chart is the domain of Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart and late night comics.
But then again, one would expect NFL widereceiver, Keyshawn Johnson, to peddle his new reality show, Tackling Design, on day time programs like the View and Oprah, not serious, substantive programs like Hannity’s America.
Jon Stewart’s video skewering of CNBC is a bit unfair, but his point is long overdue.Financial journalists and commentators must be held accountable.Their role in the current financial crisis has been largely ignored. Incessant market cheer leading by CNBC undoubtedly contributed to asset bubbles in the equity and real estate markets.
Larry Kudlow, host of CNBC’s Kudlow and Company, was the worst offender of all.Kudlow, a vocal supporter of the Bush Administration, reflexively and recklessly touted favorable economic data, while ignoring warning signs.His transparent use of cherry picked data might make Vice President Cheney blush.For Larry, it was all rosy, all the time.
The U.S recession officially began in December, 2007. The certainty of Kudlow’s statements on CNBC at the time were only surpassed by their fallacy.
December 5, 2007
The recession debate is over. It’s not gonna happen. Time to move on.
At a bare minimum, we are looking at Goldilocks 2.0. (And that’s a minimum). The Bush boom is alive and well. It’s finishing up its sixth splendid year with many more years to come.”
Several months into the recession and most of the financial press and the country had accepted reality, yet Kudlow continued to peddle delusion.
May 2, 2008
So far it’s a non-recession recession. Score one for President Bush.
President George W. Bush may turn out to be the top economic forecaster in the country.
July 2008
Media reports painted a pessimistic picture of today’s release on existing home sales, which fell 15 percent from a year ago and recorded higher inventories. But inside the report was an awful lot of very good new news, which appear to be pointing to a bottom in the housing problem; in fact, maybe the tiniest beginnings of a recovery.
It’s a pity the mainstream media keeps searching for more and more pessimism. The reality is a possible upturn in the housing trend, and at the very least we are getting a bottom.. . . I am hoping the market comes to its senses and realizes the data are a whole lot better.
Despite an abysmal record as an economic commentator, Mr. Kudlow is now rumored as a candidate for U.S. Senate in Connecticut.Let’s hope the voters of Connecticut hold Kudlow more accountable than his employers and viewers at CNBC.
