CNBC Slides As Viewers Get Crunched - Aggressive business network becomes a turn-off

[Purveyor]

With a steely gaze, the pin-striped CNBC television host Larry Kudlow looks meaningfully into the camera.

"We believe that free market capitalism is the best path to prosperity," he declares, reciting his trademark "creed" before enthusiastically launching into the day's financial action.

Share prices flicker across the bottom of the screen. Traders bicker about the fundamentals of the market. A "breaking news" flash delivers US non-farm payroll numbers. Welcome to CNBC, the world's top business television channel, which broadcasts across the globe from the nondescript suburban town of Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

Courting constant controversy for its evangelism of financial speculation, CNBC has never had so much attention. It devotes 16 hours of live coverage every day to the markets and has analysed every detail of the credit crunch. So why are its ratings slumping?

According to figures supplied to the Observer by Nielsen, the television tracking agency, the average number of Americans watching CNBC at any point on the 24-hour clock was 188,000 last month, a drop of 11% on last year. A more detailed breakdown leaked on the internet reveals a 28% plunge in CNBC viewers during the core business day, between 5am and 7pm.

MORE...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/aug/09/television-cnbc-viewing-figures

[ixion]

1. "We believe that free market capitalism is the best path to prosperity,"

"Now may we PLEASE have more stimulus money!"

[still_one]

2. good, cnbc has been a fraud for years, even when they were selling windmill timeshares

on the FNN network

If you want a reasonable approach to business news, or for that matter, news in general, I would recommend Bloomberg

They at least try to present all views in a respectful way

Problem is that it isn't presented as entertainment or reactionary, and that doesn't sell

[katanalori]

6. agreed

Another good place to go is www.Ritholtz.com - also known as "The Big Picture." For a more involved analysis of the economic situation, I recommend www.zerohedge.com.

[KoKo]

8. The "Big Picture" is fantastic....

Zero Hedge has posters that often sound like they are from Free Republic. Including one jerk who has Obama the Joker as his avatar. ZH has broken some good stories about flash trading, front running and Goldman...but the crowd over there thinks they really do belong to Fight Club and their motivation worries me.

"Economic Populist" is also a good site for financial info:

http://www.economicpopulist.org/

[rantormusing]

9. thank you

I've been looking for sites to replace reason online which used to be informative but has descended into petulant corporate defenders and sound just like the current republican party

[still_one]

12. Thanks for the links and heads up /nt

[AndyA]

3. That free market capitalism has done so much for everyone, hasn't it?

In a perfect world, where everyone is honest and does the right thing, it might work. But this isn't a perfect world.

As for CNBC's ratings, they've misled a lot of people over the last year. They are not worthy of having viewers. In short, they're getting what they deserve. Oh, and isn't Screamin' Cramer still on? Didn't he just in the last few weeks make statements (again) that caused people to lose a lot of money? People don't have to listen to him, and considering his track record they shouldn't, but he is still on the air.

I'd like to know why. :shrug:

[hatrack]

4. Because it doesn't matter who the barker outside the strip-tease tent is . .

. . . when all the men in town are impotent.

[tomreedtoon]

11. Great metaphor, Hatrack.

I would have said "when everyone is dying of radiation poisoning, no one wants to hear about the promise of nuclear power plants."

[Joanne98]

5. Cramer, Santelli, Kudlow and Michelle Cruella Di Vil = ratings poison.

[Lifelong Protester]

7. My husband, and economist who lived under the FDR admin.,

finally had to learn how to use my computer (he had resisted FOREVER, hates most 'newfangled techno-crap we can do without', if you get my meaning) because he could NOT take CNBC any more. If he watches now, it is with the sound down (don't do MUTE, the text pops up as closed captioning, and even it you try to ignore it, you can't). Hubby notes the increased stridency, the horrible right-wing bias, the fact that if there is ANY good news on the economy that MIGHT be traced to our current political situation, the shills on CNBC look for the one dark sliver they can try to blow up to a full blown dark cloud.

Wish our cable got Bloomberg as I do agree, they are a bit easier to take. We also like anything that is from overseas, like BBC.

[orwell]

10. Bloomberg cleans their clock...

...if you want business information, Bloomberg is far less hyperbolic than CNBC. The graphics are clearer. Their anchors far less opinionated. It is far more informative.

I haven't watched CNBC in years. It is thoroughly useless.

[Miss Authoritiva]

13. Ahem.

"(CNBC) missed the financial meltdown. They missed the effect of derivatives and toxic mortgages on the financial system. They missed the big stuff."

They either missed it or sat on it. Either way, CNBC analysts look like idiots.