Time's Poniewozik On CNBC: 'An Alternative Universe, Where Elites Are Populists'

I really must hie thee to the pages of Time Magazine, where James Poniewozik has just unleashed a fantastic commentary and distillation of the weird place in the world that CNBC has, of late, wedged itself. As a prelude to tonight's hypeful Jon Stewart on Jim Cramer interview, it manages to remind that there are substantive issues worth noting, and Poniewozik's "CNBC's Bull Market: Sticking Up for the Big Guy" will do the trick.

The article astutely notes CNBC's recent tendency toward the irrational, the weird arrhythmia heard in the clash of its metanarrative against the metanarrative of sister newser MSNBC, and how the whole matter exposes the need for CNBC to try to find a middle ground "between desperate cheerleading and reckless ranting." The key takeaway, however, is that CNBC has sort of fooled themselves into thinking that they've become cable news' John Steinbeck - that they are actually looking out for the "little guy."

Poniewozik remarks: "To watch CNBC today is to enter an alternative universe, where élites are populists, Wall Street is Main Street and bank executives are the oppressed." Let's recall, shall we, that earlier this week, Jim Cramer described himself thusly:

"I think the administration should attack Warren Buffett, instead of the little guys who come on TV and say that the averages are down a lot. Why don't they go after him?"

That was when Meredith Vieira, God bless her, incredulously asked, "Little guys...like Jim Cramer?" But that's how blinkered they've become at CNBC. Hanging out with the Warren Buffets of the world has confused Jim Cramer into thinking he's the "little guy," just as hanging out with Jeffrey Immelt has led David Gregory to believe he is a member of the middle class. But in the real world, it's widely recognized that getting to mount a self-defense across multiple media platforms, including a one-day charm offensive launched on NBC and MSNBC is something that the "big guys" - and not the "little guys" - get to do.

I also think Poniewozik is pitch-perfect in his choice of metaphors, here:

This means that CNBC looks at everything, particularly politics, in terms of how it will affect "the Market." The commentators on CNBC murmur about the Market as if it were the Island on Lost: a mystic force that must be placated, lest it become angry and punish us. "The Market doesn't like ..." "What the Market wants to see is ..."

And, oooh, is the Market cranky at Obama! The Market doesn't like raising taxes on the wealthy (even if Buffett does). The Market doesn't like government health-care reform or cap-and-trade environmental policy or big budgets or limiting bonuses at bailed-out banks. And don't get the Market started on bank nationalization. That ticks the Market off!

Yeah, I'd say it's time that CNBC stopped acting like they were the Dharma Initiative and maybe reined in their economic smoke monsters, before someone gets hurt.

Comments

[CHolly327]

09:07 AM on 03/13/2009

CNBC, Wall Street Journal and many others are suffering through a realignment. IT should not go unnoticed that those who had a major part with the inflating of the bubble are the most visibly critical of the new Chief Executive of 52 days. I was a part of it, sitting in front of the computer trading stocks of companies that I evaluated based on market trends supported by the latest software. A float in a sea of liquidity looking for Mr Goodbar! Well, well its seems that people do count, it seems that making stuff does matter. A failing in Infrastructure, health care, energy long ignored are no longer ignoring us.
To the Financial Media, look to those companies out there who could use the exposure and support not because they can turn a quick capital gain but because they are doing something valuable, employing Americans as they rendered a quality service or product.
Change the focus from Financial to Business, their is a difference.

[JDM73]

07:28 AM on 03/13/2009

Of course Cramer and CNBC are being shrill and defensive. Anyone will be shrill and defensive when he's caught with his pants down: "I didn't do nothin'! Stop picking on me! Waahhh!"
But it's dangerous to allow this thing to turn into more of a sideshow than it already is. The more we respond to it as entertainment, the less likely we are to stay focused and demand accountability. From Wall Street, from the less-than-forthcoming mainstream media, and from our leaders in Washington. It's time for them to repair the damage they've inflicted and start doing a better job for the American people. Will they do it on their own? No. Via petitions and protests, we must constantly remind them that they work for us...not the other way around.
Remember that complacency is what got us where we are today, and that in two or three years, when things have stabilized, complacency will again be a danger. Let's stay on our toes no matter what.

[Dave27]

03:12 AM on 03/13/2009

If there was any licensing or "truth in broadcasting" regulation, CNBC should be pulled. They are as bad as FOX, another that should be pulled until it can offer news truthfully.

We really need to have disclaimers displayed on both, since they are self-promoting propagandists.

Jon Stewart performed a great service for American, media and markets today.

[Eyeswideopen1]

02:09 AM on 03/13/2009

You know, what nobody talks about is that you could see ALL this coming if you read the tea leaves when the whole Enron thing went down. It was all there to see. Abuses of Deregulation, rampant greed, mark to market abuses. Derivative abuses.

[CabaretArtist]

02:08 AM on 03/13/2009

After watching Jon Stewart duly rake Cramer over the coals; it's apparent that Cramer et al over at CNBC need to go to jail. The footage is so telling. THEY KNEW ABOUT ALL THIS!!! That is treason! Somebody needs to definitely go to jail for runining the country. The FCC should cancel CNBC's license and pull the station. They have rape the entire country and tonight, Jon Stewart SHOWED THE PROOF!!!

[renatam]

12:20 AM on 03/13/2009

So, now CNBC has become THE JOKE...and, let's see if "Saturday Night Live" serves them up like they do everyone else.

[renatam]

12:07 AM on 03/13/2009

On CNBC "The Market" OWNS the American people and the United States of America...and, of course, CNBC is its all-knowing oracle.

We threw off King George for THIS over 200 years ago???

[TequilaMockingbird]

10:04 PM on 03/12/2009

What galls me the most was the ridiculous fiction they promoted.... that 'Investing' was what responsible people did.. and it is quite normal to give a perfect stranger your hard earned money and lo and behold at some future date.. you would get it all back plus a whole lot more!!! and buying a House was Your investment in the future and prices would never go down again ..It was all true right up until the day it wasn't..

Now the vultures come to pick our bones at cut rate prices..

[maxfax]

09:40 PM on 03/12/2009

Hasn't it be obvious for some time, that CNBC, Cramer, Santelli, are out of touch with the rest of the country?

[calijon]

10:50 PM on 03/12/2009

don't forget kudlow, jarvis, lee, kneale, cabrera.

[renatam]

12:09 AM on 03/13/2009

And the Citibank merger w/Travelers Maria B. - cheerleader for all things Sandy Weill!

You don't see HIM trolling the airwaves exactly a decade from that nightmare of a deregulated merger do you?

And, you won't hear anything from Maria B. daily - or on her (also) bogus Sunday program.

CNBC needs new talent. Real economists. Real financial advisors and investment strategists - not TRADERS and CHEERLEADERS.

[TequilaMockingbird]

08:48 PM on 03/12/2009

They.. CNBC would like us to believe that this is about Winners and Losers who don't pay bills but this has always been about suckers and scumbags and always will be..

Just imagine what would happen if every American drowning in debt and usurious interests with Mortgages for twice the value of the House just said screw it and walked on every financial obligation.. using the money instead to keep their local economy thriving...

The illusion only works on people who have something to lose in the first place.. and a taste for gambling..

Everyone knows the Poor predominately vote Democrat and now that there are even more Poor People... well.. They sure shot themselves in the foot on that one..

[freshnotbitter]

08:09 PM on 03/12/2009

A post on CNBC that would do it justice would take up far more space than is allowed here.

CNBC is disappointing.

It prides itself on hiding what is really going on. it loves "asking" what is going on and not receiving an answer while entertaining those who watch as a substitute for useful information.

Bloomberg is much, much, better.

Meredith Whitney called it right on the banks.

check out Whitney's record of appearances on Bloomberg versus CNBC. Any bloggers care to do it and print the results here?

Of course after she was proven right she was invited on CNBC.

Pathetic.

[Cactusman]

05:10 PM on 03/12/2009

In recent months, I began thinking along these same lines. Every time I'd hear about "the market" doing somehting, or feeling a certain way, I'd think, "What IS this so-called *market* anyway?"

My conclusions:

1. "The market" is a big fat drama queen.

2. "The market" is frivolous and mercurial, and cannot be trusted.

3. "The market" is comprised of the worst impulses of herd mentality present within individual traders.

4. The market's sole purpose is making money, theoretical or actual, as opposed to the multifarious purposes of real, live people. It's restricted focus makes it inherently unstable, prone to wild, whiplashing swings.

5. "The market" faints dramatically at the slightest mention of a fly in the ointment. The tiniest hint of bad news sends it reeling. It acts similarly childishly in reverse.

6. "The market" has very little to do with our daily lives. We should stop caring about it's psychotic-ballerina gyrations and pirouettes to the extent we do.

7. "The market" is unsustainable. Divorce yourself from attachment to it - focus instead on creating things of lasting value: community, family, ecological health, art, innovation, green energy, local food production, and all manner of things in the human sphere that bring fulfillment and joy. Let "the market" act out its tantrums by itself. Without our belief in it, it cannot harm us.

I hope more people will adopt this attitude to what's clearly a sick, unstable financial system, and move forth into our truer human purposes.

[CodeWorrier]

05:30 PM on 03/12/2009

>>applause

[TequilaMockingbird]

08:36 PM on 03/12/2009

standing applause!!

[teacheng]

07:30 PM on 03/12/2009

You nailed it.

[antidote]

05:00 PM on 03/12/2009

As someone who successfully invested over the years (back to the 1970's), and read the Wall Street Journal and its ridiculous opinion page for the same period, I believe it would be helpful for people to understand that Wall Street has always been a haven for influence peddlers, liars, asset bubble-promoters and scam artists. The Street has been that for well over a century (volumes have been written on this topic) and it will never change. Unfortunately, it is probably un-reformable, though I hope Obama tries..There are no "free markets", but there are a never-ending series of fast-buck artists trying to sell you for two dollars what they bought yesterday for one dollar- probably by their use of insider information which you do not have. Its residents have one God, whom they refer to as "the Market", but whose real name is Greed. Daily worship services are held at the CNBC Chapel, and anyone who thinks they are getting unbiased information from the Cramers, Kudlows, and Santelli's is seriously delusional. You would have a much better chance with a slot machine; and the ethical level is very similar to that of a procurer delivering johns to a whorehouse. If you are going to participate, have the good sense to understand you are playing in a completely rigged game.

[Subversive]

06:25 PM on 03/12/2009

Hear!!! Hear!!!

[Great cheers, applause, and whistling]

[dryrock]

07:38 PM on 03/12/2009

Let us resurrect that word from the Seven Deadly Sins: Avarice.

[Ohsherrie]

04:53 PM on 03/12/2009

"The Market" is the spoiled child of the repugs and it's been having a tantrum since it's playmate Georgie got sent into timeout.

[ladyv]

04:48 PM on 03/12/2009

God, yes. The Market is like The Island, and Republicans are like Ben and are incapable of doing anything but lying. Only difference is that there's still the possibility that Ben might turn out to not be evil, after all.