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CNN is Fearmongering Suckage
Posted by Scott on 12th March, 2009 | 12 commentsI used to like CNN and really, it’s actually a great resource for major breaking news. For all other times, they suck. Take today for instance. The market is up for the 3rd day in a row. The dow is up over 9.5% in the past 3 sessions. Our devastated economy may be in the early stages of a recovery. Is CNN reporting this on the home page in big bold letters? Nope. Not one mention until you scroll down to the business section and see a tiny link to “A three-peat for Wall Street’s bulls”. Apparently, “Mom patrols U.S. border from her den” is more important. But on days when the market is down, it’s front page news.
CNN homepage 3pm PT 3/12/2009:
Compare that to Marketwatch.com homepage 3pm 3/12/2009:
And the Wall Street Journal homepage 3pm 3/12/2009:
I’m tired of all this economy fearmongering by mainstream news like CNN. Yes we’re in a recession. Yes foreclosures are a mess etc. But companies are still making money. Most people still have jobs. The only people who should be spending less money out there are those who lost their jobs or their homes. Everyone else should be spending, focusing on their unchanged incomes, but they’re not, because they only hear about bad news on wonderful sources like CNN and the good news is lost, so they fear, they hunker down, and they drive our economy further into the toilet. News moves this market and the media has a huge role to play in boosting both consumer and investor confidence that yes, we can repair, recover, move forward and grow again.
Most investors out there are not pros. They are John and Jane Q. Public with their 401k’s. They need reassurance and confidence. If they held $100,000 in stock last year and sold last week, they might have $46,000 now. If they held through today’s 3 day rally, they’d have $51,000 today. Everyone needs to gauge their risk tolerance and their asset allocation, being well diversified, make sure they have enough cash etc, but sell low and buy high is not a good strategy. Selling when CNN gives you bad news and buying when CNN gives you good news is not a good strategy. Be greedy when others are fearful!
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Thursday, March 12th, 2009 at 4:46 pm and is filed under Web Business. If you like this post why not subscribe to my full text RSS feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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You make a good point, but you can’t throw just CNN on the bus (I see more screenshots that you added), it’s most of the mainstream media.
Yes it’s mainstream media but CNN has been really annoying me lately with their fear mongering. More than the others.
I would also add FOX to the mix as to me they same to me very negative. Being as negative as they are does us no good
It’s surprising like you outlined here, all this talk of how really bad things are when the stock markets were falling almost every day, but yet after the up week, that doesn’t make the headlines. It’s surprising how the media always seem to put the “bad news” headlines as the main headlines.
The media in general has a lot to answer for with the crisis we find ourselves in across the world.
You are quite right, they only ever report the negative, not the positive.
The house prices keep falling and people expect cheaper houses because the media keep telling them that the prices are falling. It has nothing to do with what the houses are worth, it is about what the media tells people they are worth.
They feed the frenzy. I hope that the marketing budgets are cut so much that the newspapers and news agencies go bust!
JZ
as you say, the big news portals are no good anymore (except for breaking news) - nowadays every local newspapers online presence comes up with a news ticker that is taylored to its audience. Either be localizing or interest targeting. I stick with those and not with the big guys anymore.
regarding the recession i think that much of it is based on governments acting in panic and with that spreading fear to the general public.
When i see how full our shopping centers are - and those people are not only window shoppers - and how my customers react (in education) then i am not fearing a recession at all.
I agree. CNN is great for letting you know what is going on, however, CNN, as well as every other news affiliate is dramatizing the economic situation. Yes, things are really bad, however, when things are tough, good news goes that much farther. Most people in America have no idea that the stock market has been up the past three days and they won’t because they will not get that information from their national news sources. When times are this tough, and the economy is in such turmoil, a glimmer of good news like that goes a long way; it gives people hope that the future is a little brighter.
The actions and agenda of the mainstream media is open to much debate. Suffice to say that their focus is not always entirely positive or relevant….
Well I’ve been saying this for a while now - media in general is mostly responsible for the recession. They spread panic, people stop spending money and ten economy slows down more and more.
Arguable one of the best sources for breaking news I have ever come across.
I think this is just part of an overcrowded 24 hour news cycle industry. The US has 5 or 6 24 news networks and since its so crowded they even have started to openly slate the news. IE - Fox is conservative and MSNBC is more liberal.
Its a shame.
Have you heard of how low the Ratings are for CNN? Makes sense if you ask me
Till then,
Jean
Actually I think that CNN pretty much sucks for all news BBC is far and away better than CNN>