CNBC Has Become The Gong Show

"I can't stand it no more"

-Peter Frampton

It's hard to find a more avid CNBC viewer than myself. I've watched several hours a day since the network was invented.

When cable television was a novelty in the early 1980's, I arranged for part of my city to be wired so that stock brokers and financial planners like me to watch FNN in their offices.

FNN was the model that CNBC is based on and many of their best news people spent time at FNN.

CNBC charges premium dollars for advertising because the CNBC audience is highly educated and upper income.

In other words, people like me.

I don't know when CNBC decided that people like me needed to be yelled at.

Jon Stewart did an outstanding piece of journalism (or at least at outstanding piece of journalism by a comedian on a comedy show) when he exposed some ways that the network missed on the economic crisis.

As a (former) daily viewer, I understood the network's biases but never cared as it usually gave me good information.

Now, all they do is yell at me.

I think Jim Cramer started it first. His wild antics were popular for a while. Then everyone on the network started yelling. The network gives unending amounts of time to Larry Kudlow. Not only is a Kudlow a right wing fanatic, he has absolutely no manners. He rudely interrupts guests and yells over them.

If my mother had been his mother, Larry would have spent a lot of time having his mouth washed out with soap.

Now, everyone is doing it. They pop 10 people on the screen at once and you can't hear anyone.

I guess the viewers are supposed to decide a winner, like they did on the Gong Show.

CNBC used to have a small number of big name experts, like "Investment Biker" Jim Rogers, who really knew something about finance and gave them time to talk.

Now they drag in scores of warm bodies that no one has ever heard of. Often they have no connection to the topic of the day.

Today was the tipping point for me. It was a big day in the foreign markets and I tuned in to Power Lunch get some insights.

Instead, Power Lunch was focused on a union bashing topic. They brought on a "Democratic operative" who had no connection to any labor union and paired her with a right wing talk show host.

Each was supposed to get 30 seconds to start. The "Democratic operative" spoke first. She had her talking points and several minutes later, she was still reading them. The camera focused on the other guy and he tried to talk over her. No one tried to stop her or cut her microphone.

Then the conservative guy, who had no connection to any labor or industry groups, went to his talking points.

If there was any information to be gathered out of that exchange, I totally missed it.

Both looked great on camera. Neither had the slightest idea what they were talking about.

I gave up.

I started dialing through the channels and wound up at Fox Business News. At that moment, it was the only place where I could find "fair and balanced" information.

Think about that for a minute.

As the Frampton song says, "I can't stand it no more." I really wish CNBC operated like the Gong Show. They are some hosts, and guests, that I would love to gong off.

I am sure someone high up at CNBC thinks the yelling has merit but they are running off the hardest of its hard core audience.

People like me.

Don McNay, CLU, ChFC, MSFS, CSSC is the founder of McNay Settlement Group, a structured settlement consulting firm, in Richmond, Kentucky.

He is the author of Son of a Son of a Gambler: Winners, Losers and What to Do When You When The Lottery. You can write to Don at [e-mail] or read his award winning column at www.donmcnay.com.

McNay is a lifetime member of the Million Dollar Round Table.

Follow Don McNay on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Donmcnay

Comments

[Moncar]

The bottom line at CNBC is that a lot of politically biased people are messing with their audience's money. Pity the fool that's buying any kind of securities simply because they are politically correct.

Beyond Bulls and Bears there are flocks of sheep and the beauteous Erin Burnett is, in reality, Little Bo Peep.

[BrianFX]

"CNBC charges premium dollars for advertising because the CNBC audience is highly educated and upper income. "

So CNBC charges the makers of the Snuggie premium dollars to run their ad every single commercial break? I have a feeling their ad rates are not as high as you think..

[CroatianCritter]

I am not sure which two people I saw on CNBC this week but it was a blond women with very distinct eyes interviewing an economist. During the interview, she was trying to get him to tell the public that the economy is starting to turn around. HE WAS HAVING NONE OF IT! He discussed the numbers and said that the smart investor has abandoned this market months ago. This women, with talking points in hand and no knowledge of the market other than to prop it up as a financial tool, started battling him but his facts continued to be solid. Eventually, she ended the interview unsatisfied. Is this any different than the ramblings of Maria Bartiromo, Bob Pasani, Erin Burnett and Jim Cramer on this station at any other time? They work for a large corporation that has a HUGE investment in the stock market. How do you think these talking heads are going to act?

[notrust]

I used to watch CNBC for just stock and financial news. I do not care most opinions on the show. Some of the hosts are just rude and they believe they need to be that way to be seen as experts. One can see that many of them are just shallow.

For me, I will be satisfied with just financial news and if someone can deliver it with cartoon characters, it is fine with me. Then we are all spared of watching the faces of these insufferable humans. Why do they need so many hosts there? Some good reporters are there, but the noise of the warped majority drives viewers away from the station. These days, I am watching Bloomberg. I like its classy show with Pimm Fox. I hope they could improve their graphics a bit.

[riano]

Don't worry, watch FBN for a while and you'll get yelling there, too. they are an improvement over their mother ship, Fox News, to be sure. Apparently all the cable shows think more is better. The CNBC show you mention, Power Lunch, used to be a perfectly good show hosted by reasonable abnd qualified business reporters. I guess CNBC thought they neeed to juice things up, instead they've just created something that is in it's own way, just as unfair and unbalanced as Fox News.

[dan-o]

You are right about the talking heads trying to talk over each other in what looks like a Tic Tac Toe panel from the old game show. I don't understand how they think anyone can get any good info from the loud mouths. I also have turned it off.

[coolfireone]

Thank you. Thank you for coming out and speaking the truth. Larry Kudlow, although probably personally a nice guy, is extremely rude exactly as you describe. I turn off when he comes on. Many times I have wished CNBC would get rid of him, not only for his rudeness but also for his over the top political lop sidedness.

In addition to Larry, Michelle Caruso-Cabrera also comes across as very rude, exhibiting the same characteristics as Kudlow.

On the other hand, to give credit where due, among the courteous are Mark Haines, Bob Pisani, Erin Burnette, David Favor, Trish Regan, Bill Griffith, Rick Santilli, and Steve Liseman.

Maria Bartiromo could benefit from a non-yelling pill when she gets excited or at the day’s closing when she simply yells at viewers, as if that somehow adds value to content.

I certainly miss Dylan Ratigan and his inspired, insightful, direct, and humorous leadership of Fast Money. His departure was a significant loss to CNBC. Simple fact.

[swift goat pet for truth]

I watched CNBC for years. Maybe not as long as Mr McNay. But lately, I have drifted away. At first it was only when Kudlow came on. But then the right wing talking points got more and more play, and I am just tired of hearing things that have been proven not to work.

Perhaps the yelling thing just finished it for me.

[Blase]

The right wing posturing is a deliberate poise. They know who their viewers are.

This is why you have Charlie Gasparino contributing wingnut oped pieces for the NY Post. That and a desire to suck up to the competition at Fox.

[Blase]

I used to be one of those talking heads. No longer, and I know others who used to appear on the network who also will not do so anymore, because of the demeaning format that you describe.

CNBC producers think they are doing you a favor by letting you appear on their shows, to be talked-over, argued with and interrupted. Some people are so desperate for publicity that they think that exposing themselves to rude treatment is a career enhancer. I assure you that it is not.

Kudlow is one of the worst offenders but he is not alone. As you correctly point out, the "yelling" style is directly encouraged by management. I know because I have had conversations with top people at CNBC. I agree with you that it is driving off viewers, and in addition it is driving off guests.

[ProperGanda]

The very brief summary of the two political parties is: Republicans are pro business, and democrats are about helping the employee as oppsed to the employer. Why is it so hard to think that a business channel might not like a democrat president? He wasn't voted in to help big business.

[raker]

You watched this biased network of clowns because they gave you good information? That doesn't quite jibe.

Someone should do a study of why people watch cable news. We know it's composed of political hackery and contrived tension devised to keep people watching, but people continue to watch even after they realize they're being hosed. They seem to think they're obligated to watch, like going to church. People disparage CNN or CNBC or the rest in one breath and say they never miss it in the next. What's going on? Cable news is shadows on the wall of a cave. If you want to know what's happening in the world you're not going to find it there.

[nowThenzen]

sadly true ... the sister network of the brain dead CNBC is MSNBC = wtf? I think CNBC has to run itself into the ground before it can be reborn - like a badly run business with intrinsic value or market has to hit the rocks before new blood can right the ship; kind o' like a metaphor for our times.

[msinfo]

This is an insult to Chuck Barris and the Gong Show

[DavidG52]

Right/Write on Don,

I feel the same way about most "news" shows. I used to watch Headline News when they actually had headline news. They went to Nancy Grace, Glenn Beck, etc. and dropped the news. At least they have also dropped headline news from their name. They are HLN news and VIEWS.

The network morning news shows have gone fluff too. You have to wait 15 minutes for 30 seconds of news then back to whatever that other stuff is. Thank God for NPR.

What I really don't like is the new trend on CNN, HLN, et. al. to read or post phone in or text in or email in comments from anyone who cares to blab for a while, followed by an unscientific poll.

The corporate TV news world knows what people want and they are letting us have it!