Americans Turn To CNBC To Explain Financial Crisis

The week of Sept. 14 was the highest-rated one in CNBC's 19-year history, with 502,000 viewers during the business day (counted as the 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. hours by CNBC). Last week the ratings remained high, with an average 441,000 viewers through Thursday.

Mark Hoffman, the president of CNBC, said the network had focused for years on "the delicate balance in business between fear and greed.

"When there's an aggressive move to one extreme or the other CNBC engagement surges," he said. "Through much of this crisis fear has beat greed silly."

As Tom Brakke, an investment firm consultant, put it in a blog post last week, the viewer impulse was perhaps "the same basic instinct that attracts onlookers to a car crash."

The ratings have also soared for the Fox News Channel, CNN and MSNBC in recent weeks. (Presumably they have also increased for the business channels Fox Business Network and Bloomberg, but their ratings are not publicly reported by Nielsen.

Business pundits are suddenly in demand: CNBC reporters have contributed daily to the "NBC Nightly News," and Fox Business Network hosts have appeared on "20/20" and "The View."

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[funkalicious]

Cramer says Rapacious Capitalism will fix Rapacious Capitalism, of course his rapacious capitalism needs to be McCainullized a short political time out to socialize their losses.

Hang tight people the rapacious capitalism that will fix this is going short the politicians and wall street and going long the Honest American Citizen. Time to load your boat with the Short ETF's
http://tinyurl.com/4zdr5m

[usabroad]

Bloomberg tops any of the networks for coverage in this area at this time.

[PT6]

In CRISIS can we stand FOUR MONTHS of a POWERLESS PRESIDENT and VICE PRESIDENT?

No! They can not control Their OWN REPUB HOUSE and They are causing MORE DAMAGE!

We MUST START IMPEACHMENT HEARINGS and THE CHARGES ARE:

1. False Statements to Congress and the American People regarding IRAQ.
2. Non-Regulation of Stock, Bond, Banking, and Oil.
3. Non-Enforcement of SEC Rules on "Naked Shorts" that drove Companies to Bankruptcy and Merger.
4. Excessive Leveraging of Oil Market to Force Oil to Record Highs.
5. Non-Regulation of Mortgage Industry that lead to "TRICK" Loans and lost homes.
6. Non-Regulation of Derivatives which combine HIGH RISK LOANS together and Sell as Low Risk.
7. Non-Enforcement of Rules and Regulations in ALL INDUSTRIES.
8. Excessive Executive Pay for POOR PERFORMANCE.

There is literally REAMS of INFORMATION including Video, Audio, Text, Phone, and email evidence to convict these perpetrators.

[dadw5boys]

IT'S A SUCKERS GAME TILL MARKETS STABLIZE !!!!!!!!!!

[LemonMeringue]

I'm so sick of this blowhard.

[DaOne]

CNBC is just like the Administration in that they both lack accountability.......the t u r d s on fast money said to buy Goldman at 180 on the pullback from 200.....yeah how ya liking it at 120!

[mizerello]

Who is watching CNBC? We call this channel the Conservative NBC channel...they are so biased, I simply can't watch them. And, friends who listened to their analysts' advice? Their portfolios are crashing and burning. Even with the current economic disaster, most of the analysts on CNBC are blaming Democrats for our current situation. Excuse me? This is the result of the deregulation revolution started under Reagan and completed during the present Bush administration. The Republicans own this disaster and CNBC and it's analysts--they're also part of this problem. I'm with some of the other posters; I watch C-SPAN and get my business news from a variety of places...not CNBC.

[wallygator]

The blind leading the stupid.Thanks I needed a laugh while I listen to C-Span.

[Chavez08]

Yeah, let Friedmans' blind groupies tell you why Friedmans' system failed miserably. There's some fair and objective journalism and commentary for you.....

"Greeeeeeeen Acres is the place to be...."

[Tom95134]

I'd trust Cramer about as far as I could throw him.

[AlwaysFairDem]

Cramer is another A**hole trying to spike ratings...nothing more to Cramer. Yes, he knows the companies name what they do but has not f**king clue of the Working Class. Further, I have tracked his recommendations in my fake portfolio and I tell you at one point last year I had a 35% decline in the value of my portfolio (I had called it Cramer Picks).

The guy is full of hot air with no real substance. All he knows is keep the stock talk exciting by appearing hysterical.

[olephart]

"Americans turn to CNBC to explain financial crisis"

On a similar note, Americans have enlisted the aid of the tooth fairy for help with dental hygiene.

[littlepuffycloud]

LOL

[truthforme]

And elected George Bush to run their country . . . correction. RUIN their country.

[dzent1]

Bush is the Decider. He put the "I" in "run".

[Totto]

And adopted Sarah Palin as the latest "it" girl.

[arunachala]

yeah, the only time i actually believed cramer was with his popular video last year when he was screaming, "He has no idea! They're nuts ! They know nothing!" and then later on in the clip after cramer giving some candid advice the lady says "but that's gonna cause armageddon" which cramer responds, "no we HAVE armageddon"

[Skua]

So if Jim Cramer has been on the case since last year warning "how bad it is out there," how come he told his viewers "There is nothing wrong with Bear" three days before it disappeared? How come three weeks ago he was saying the market had hit bottom (I'm 90% sure that was what he said)? Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me like listening to Cramer has been a losing strategy all along.

[collprof]

I totally agree. Had investors listened to Mr. Cramer and bought Bear stock they would have been completely wiped out. As it stands Mr. Cramer is being taken to task by a variety of investors for just such scurrilous comments.

His show belongs in vaudeville and not on Wall Street. He is no better than P.T. Barnum.

[Wiredwilly]

What a farce. Actually, I'm the only person that really knows what's going on. It all revolves around Paul & Max Warburg.

[arunachala]

the interesting thing about paul warburg, is that when i just checked out his wiki page i saved it with my delicious bookmark manager, the suggested tags included : bussiness, history, politics, nwo. ...yeah, i'd say that's about right