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The Good, the Bad & the Ugly
CNBC’s
Maria Bartiromo asks for balanced reporting; NBC’s global warming
magic: cap-and-trade to make solar energy affordable;
Oops – CNBC’s Cramer says
‘Bear Stearns is not in trouble’ one week prior to collapse.
March 19, 2008
The Good
It’s about time some in the media recognized the media have
an impact on the economy.
Although no
one is asking the media to be mindless cheerleaders and say all is
well with the American economy, the media’s constant carping can
have a negative impact, according to CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo.
Bartiromo discussed the role of the media with the Financial Times
Gillian Tett in
an interview posted on FT.com on March 14.
“Well, I
think the role of television is not unlike the role of online,
newspapers, the media in general, is right now – as has been the
case for a long time, is facing an enormous responsibility to ensure
that the news is accurate, and steady, and emotionless,” Bartiromo
said. “There’s no doubt about it – that we can feed on the story
that bad news begets bad news, which begets bad sentiment and
decreases confidence.”
A possible
ultimate outcome according to Bartiromo is a real recession.
“So, I
think we can talk ourselves into a recession – no doubt about that,”
Bartiromo added. “It’s troubling to constantly hear more negative
headlines.”
Bartiromo
admitted some of those headlines are the realities and how much is
attributable to the media is unclear, but she said the constant doom
and gloom reporting is having an impact.
The Bad
One of the global warming community's favorite alternative
energy resources is solar energy. Since it emits no greenhouse gas,
it gives alarmists a warm and fuzzy feeling. However, that feeling
has affected NBC reporter Anne Thompson’s
ability to apply basic economic principles to her stories.
According
to Thompson, there are two drawbacks to solar power - 1) You're at
the mercy of Mother Nature for sunlight; and 2) It's drastically
more expensive than fossil-fuel electricity.
"And there
is the matter of price," Thompson said. "The Electric Research Power
Institute says this kind of solar power is two to four times more
expensive than electricity from natural gas or coal."
But rather
than allow the markets to inspire innovation to make solar a more
competitive energy source, Thompson told viewers a cap-and-trade
system would force carbon-based electricity to be more expensive and
therefore make solar power more competitive.
"But if
there is a cap on carbon emissions, [Accione Energy, NA CEO Peter]
Duprey says that could change," Thompson said.
Duprey told
Thompson a carbon cap would make coal plants more expensive, and
that would force the cost of solar power down because it would draw
more focus as an energy resource.
The Ugly
Hopefully your financial portfolio didn’t include stock in
Bear Stearns, but it might have if you had listened to CNBC’s Jim
Cramer.
After it was announced March 16 that J.P. Morgan Chase &
Co. (NYSE:JPM)
was purchasing Bear Stearns Cos. (NYSE:BSC)
for $2 a share, the stock plummeted more than 80 percent at the
opening of trading March 17.
But, on March 11,
Cramer told an e-mailer the beleaguered investment bank wasn’t in
trouble:
“Dear
Jim: Should I be worried about Bear Stearns in
terms of liquidity and get my money out of there? --Peter
Cramer says:
“No! No! No! Bear
Stearns is not in trouble. If anything, they’re more likely to be
taken over. Don’t move your money from Bear.”
Cramer
claimed on CNBC’s March 17 “Street Signs” he meant not to take money
out of the accounts at Bear Stearns, even though when he read the
e-mail on his show, “Mad Money” on March 11, the stock ticker and a
chart of the Bear Stearns’ stock’s performance over the last three
months was up on the screen.
The Good, the Bad & the Ugly tracks the best and worst media
coverage of business and economics. Readers are invited to submit
suggestions or news tips to Staff Writer Jeff Poor at
jpoor@mediaresearch.org.
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