[Infowarrior] - Open Letter To The Financial Media

[Richard Forno]

(All I can say is "right on!" --rf)

An Open Letter To The Financial Media

Submitted by 1-2 on Fri, 07/24/2009 - 11:15

By 1-2 and Marla Singer
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/open-letter-financial-media

It can hardly have escaped your notice that a battle of epic  
proportions, simmering at the fringes for months, was this very week  
finally joined.  Pursuing what can only be termed a "mobius strip news  
cycle" strategy, certain "financial news" programs have taken to  
throwing those pesky "parasitic" bloggers to the proverbial wolves at  
every opportunity. Given the tenor of discourse and the ad hominem  
pursuits of our mainstream colleagues, conveniently beamed right into  
our offices from the from the otherwise warming glow of our LCD  
panels, we at Zero IntelligenceHedge welcome the opportunity to  
contribute to the discussion- not, mind you, because our feelings are  
hurt (you can’t hurt something that doesn’t bleed), but rather because  
our appraisal of these attacks puts them on par with the baseless  
ramblings of the Tourette's afflicted homeless guy who loiters about  
outside our offices.  Pure stream of consciousness, laden with panic  
and paranoia, and characterized more by shrill tone and volume than a  
respectable signal to noise ratio.  Desperate, and desperately ill.

Not so long ago, the dual-class share structure of newspapers was a  
bedrock principal of media corporate governance.  Insulating- the  
argument went- the paper from the whims of the public was necessary to  
the independence of the Fourth Estate (can't have pesky shareholders  
dictating sacrosanct editorial policy, after all).  Those days are  
over.  This change is neither the result of some maverick revolt in  
corporate governance, nor is it the consequence of a dramatic  
awakening by institutional holders (who would require close order  
thermonuclear detonations to rouse).  It is merely the sad result of  
the most abject and base squandering of a valuable estate since the  
Manor of Marr fell into the bloodsucking clutches of early 19th  
century English probate.

The Fourth Estate has spent and leveraged its reputation capital in  
keeping with the finest traditions of 21st century investment  
banking.  As a consequence, these age-old institutions are quickly for  
the way of their banking parallels: Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers.  
We are actually quite fortunate to witness the historic dying gasps of  
old media, painfully resisting the very same creative destruction they  
utilized to, temporarily, supplant town criers, printed pulp,  
Valueline and teletype as primary sources of daily news-flow. When the  
future of no lesser institution than the New York Times seems  
uncertain, and Tribune's only real valued asset is a baseball team  
(and the Chicago Cubs at that) it becomes difficult to go long old  
media brands. However, like all dying industries, instead of changing  
their own ways they choose to attack the new guardians of the estate:  
New Media.  This is not to say "new media" is perfect, far from it.   
It does, however, have the virtue of being effective.  Too effective,  
in fact, if you ask certain networks.  Is it any wonder that we are  
now in the midst of new "circulation wars" or that the same "yellow  
journalism" has once again become en vogue?  Today, however, we call  
them "click through rates" and "hard hitting programming."  ("Hard  
hitting" referring primarily to the effect the carefully selected  
anchors have on viewers of the opposite sex- and so it has been since  
Arthur "The Desert Fox" Kent went to the sandbox for CNN).

It is easy to point fingers, to try to shift blame for what is, at the  
core, a lack of adaptability.  Viewed from a distance, that mainstream  
media, burdened by its wholesale dependence on personality, would be  
threatened by anonymous speech is totally unsurprising.  How old  
exactly is the phrase "media personality" after all?  How alien must  
it be to veterans of the business that media without the personality  
might appeal?  How difficult it must be to fight in a ring with  
someone who doesn't play by the rules, and when there is no ammunition  
for the only weapons available, the personal attack and the dirt- 
digger?  If the primary complaint is that we have yet to provide a  
photocopy of our driver's licenses, that is concerning.  With this in  
mind, Ladies and Gentlemen of the media, we would like to make a few  
points:

1.  Anonymous speech is not a crime.

You may or may not be aware that there is a long tradition of  
anonymous speech in the United States.  It did not begin here.  Not by  
a long shot.  In 509 BC Publius Valerius Publicola and colleagues  
transformed, with the help of extensive pamphleteering, the monarchy  
that ruled Rome into a republic by deposing and banishing Lucius  
Tarquinius Superbus.  (What a great anchor name that would make!)  The  
result was twofold.  First, the invention of the Roman title of  
"Consul."  Second, the beginning of the Roman Republic.  You may  
recognize "Publius Valerius Publicola," as the precursor later taken  
by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and James Madison in the form of  
"Publius," the pen name over which they wrote the Federalist Papers.   
We shouldn't have to point out the import of these events.  If they  
escape you, may we recommend the World Book’s new age form,  
Wikipedia.  (Britannica is, as one might expect, as dead as  
parchment).  All this is a long way of pointing out exactly what you  
are indicting when you belittle pseudonymity.  (As an aside, in  
sophisticated discourse, it pays to know the difference between  
anonymity and pseudonymity).

Confusing identity with reputation is a common error made by the  
enemies of anonymity.  Do we respect the anchor of a well-known  
financial news channel (roll with us for a minute here) because of his  
Italian last name?  Or do we respect him because of his reputation for  
hard-hitting financial journalism?  Surely some embarrassing moments  
about his past might cause some snickering.  But this is identity, not  
reputation- certainly not professional reputation.  Is it relevant to  
the content of the news that another anchor on said channel got a wee- 
bit amorous in a taxi with a woman (or two) not his wife?  (Or a woman  
someone else's wife?)  Only insofar as that anchor makes his career  
about identity, that is personality, instead of reputation.  If he  
does that, he is fair game for all the snark and gossip he whorishly  
solicits.

Since we write under pseudonyms we have but one currency: the quality  
of our content, and the reputation built since we started writing it.   
Readers will decide for themselves whether our content is informative  
and worthy of their time.  There is no cloak of personality in which  
we may hide.  Our professional "brands" are just as vulnerable as any  
reporter on any network.  Unless you are a Luddite of some kind we are  
easy to contact.  Contrast this with our experience with you. We have  
discovered, as it happens, that you never return our e-mails.  It is  
apparently beneath you.  Furthermore, owing to our lack of a highly  
leveraged, publicly held parent, we lack the traditional gatekeepers  
many personalities use to screen potential "bearers of bad  
newscorrection." Are there some bloggers out there who seek no more  
than to rake muck?  Of course, but the same can be said for any circle  
of journalists you may care to name.  Our writing is all we have  
(personality does not interest us) and so we strive to keep it  
accurate, informative, and interesting- just as any journalist would.   
Does that mean we consider ourselves journalists?  What's in a name?  
Many of us are closer to op-ed writers.  Many of us are purely  
editors.  Some of us even fancy ourselves philosophers.  But, may i  
remind you, editorials are generally written by a “board” even more  
anonymous than ourselves- subject to no army of instant-gratification  
grammar Nazis, and rarely lowering themselves to so much as issue a  
correction.  Think anonymous writers are all scum?  Read the Economist  
some time.

As to the personal habits of various mainstream reporters, we are  
totally uninterested in these details.  They are only relevant where  
they expose the hypocritical tenor of someone who chides anonymous  
authors to reveal themselves and then hides behind a "no comment" when  
confronted with his or her own personality defects.

Attacking anonymity is the nexus of this misdirection error and an  
over-reliance on the media value of personality over content.  This  
must end.  We've said so long before mainstream media attacked us, not  
least in our manifesto.  Content is what is important here, and none  
of you seem to understand that.  You fall back to personality because  
it is your last and only hope.  We don't care to play along, thank  
you.  Why?

2.  Your unveiling motives are less than pure.

Demanding the unveiling of anonymous authors is often a pretense for  
opening the door to personal attacks.  We recognize that conflict  
makes for good prime time television.  We understand that producers  
seek to capitalize on this and that, for reasons obvious even to a  
first year psychology student, juicy personal attacks draw ratings.   
Zero Hedge enjoyed a bit of personal experience in this vein when  
exposed to the high-pressure "are we doing this or what" come-on of a  
certain financial network producer.  We declined, prompting "the  
talent"'s attempt to savage us on-air (and our largest spike of web  
traffic theretofore).  Interesting as it will be in 20 years for  
sociologists to study, this is not journalism.

Ladies and Gentlemen, one-line zingers and contrived time limits  
designed to impale your hapless guests do not constitute "constructive  
conflict" worthy of the your interest in the Fourth Estate, which,  
incidentally, you do not own, but rather hold in trust on behalf of  
the citizenry.  Want to see real, purposeful conflict on television?   
Try pulling some 5 or 10 year old archive tapes on the McLaughlin  
Group, or 1980s vintage runs of the British quiz show "Mastermind."   
The latter was invented by Bill Wright, a former gunner in the Royal  
Air Force who based the premise of the show on his experience  
resisting interrogation by the Gestapo.  Do we need to point out that  
you are out of your league?  That was conflict television.  Mastermind  
itself is even purely entertainment (the British love to watch their  
fellows squirm).  Your efforts pale in comparison and, as it happens,  
your urge to entertain is entirely misplaced when mixed with  
"financial journalism."  We suggest you reflect seriously on this  
before you put the deci-split-screen up for the [n]th time.  Actually,  
we take it back.  Nothing better characterizes everything that is  
wrong with your approach than the deci-split-screen.  As you were.

In case it was not already clear, let us just be plain: we are not  
interested in your ad hominem drama.  We are not so in love with fame  
that we are prepared to subject ourselves to that kind of artifice in  
exchange for it.  We understand this worldview puzzles and frightens  
you, and that we must seem an opponent no easier to grasp than quantum  
mechanics (well we have a former physicist among us, so maybe that's a  
bad example).  Look back at real drama and notice that it never needed  
to be invented in the newsrooms of 1972.  Demanding our unveiling is  
an excuse.  An excuse wielded by those who have no content of value to  
offer.  Just to be clear: this means you.

3.  The era of personality-centric media needs to end- quickly, and  
(hopefully) painfully.

The fact that you thrive on the momentum of personality-centric  
reporting does not mean that we do, or that it is the right kind of  
reporting.  Your shrill cries of "coward" in the face of anonymous or  
pseudonymous authors somehow implies that narcissism is equivalent to  
bravery.  This is, in your case, self-serving.  And, frankly, we beg  
to differ with respect to your basic premise.

On the contrary, we think narcissism is cowardice.  Personality- 
centric reporting is the last resort of those who have no valuable  
content to offer on fading networks with waning delivery channels.   
Edutainment is a mutation designed (poorly) to forestall total  
decline.  None of you seem to understand that the issue is content,  
not comment.

There was a time when the pinnacle of global discourse came from the  
newsroom at CBS.  When no self-respecting citizen who considered  
themselves informed would go long without the evening news.  What do  
we have now?  Can we not all recognize what a severe devolution this is?

When we have Dan Rather's 77 year old face on HDTV, and this program  
is called "Dan Rather Reports," (the focus on the personality of the  
host is almost daunting) can we not agree that something is wrong?  It  
is not that Dan Rather's majestic countenance is not comely (well, not  
only that) but that any countenance at all is a major portion of the  
visual offering.  People, HDTV is for football, not news.  If you have  
any doubt that this is so, consider how many HDTV reports of any  
weight emerged from Iran this month, or last.  Zero.  None.  Of  
course.  This was easily the most important foreign policy story of  
the year.  Where did the scoops come from?  Twitter and YouTube.  We  
don't claim Twitter and YouTube are the next revolution.  We think  
Twitter and YouTube are sort of lame.  It's just that they are  
somewhat less lame than your medium.  Stepping back for a moment, that  
is really quite sad.

Video killed the newsroom.  Stop trying to jump-start the corpse.

4.  You can't fight a dead model.  (They don't respond to the sleeper  
hold at all, and getting caught with one while trying is bad news).

It is not our fault or our problem that your business model is dead.   
We didn't kill it.  You did.  You killed it when you did a 16 minute  
expose on the business of porn.  You killed it when you stacked the  
anchor desk with stacked anchors.  You killed it when you started  
writing books for six-figure advances, and schmoozing for access to  
fill those books with juicy tidbits about (and dialogue from) senior  
executives on Wall Street.  You killed it when you hired an audio  
producer to dub in dramatic music in times of financial crisis.  You  
killed it when you started paying someone six-figures to create eye- 
catching graphics.  Every dollar you spent on this nonsense was a  
dollar you took away from the newsroom.  Is it any wonder that  
reporters at the Wall Street Journal are paid shameful trifles while  
"the talent" (for the unwashed, we mean the TV anchors) rival  
investment banking paychecks?

5.  Take it from us.  It's time to punt.

When you've gotten to the point where you are attacking online media  
in order to boost viewing of embedded video clips of your content,  
inventing fights with new media to boost ratings, when you are  
boosting online ad revenue this way, might not it be the time to just  
cut out the expensive cost center middlemen (we are looking at you- in  
the eye- stacked anchors) and move to online distribution entirely?   
We've been watching quite carefully and we haven't seen a story above  
the 5th grade level out of you in over a year.  (Except, perhaps for  
the piece on porn, that was at 7th grade level for sure).  Instead it  
seems clear that you have been reduced to calling us "morons" and  
"dickweeds."  (We can say "fuckhead" in our medium, how about you?)   
We are sorry to tell you that the last decent movie John Hughes wrote  
was Uncle Buck.  (Some people cite Home Alone, which came out a year  
later, but we think this nonsense).  That is to say, personal attacks,  
one-liners, snarky comedy and "zingers" were funnier in 1989.  It is  
now 2009, and no one is going to play "Don't You Forget About Me"  
while you walk away through the parking lot after work.  (That is  
unless your producer hangs speakers out the window).  If you want to  
drop a zinger here and there, better make sure it is bracketed on both  
sides with some real content.  Stick to parody and satire.  Name  
calling only works for awhile.

6.  Get out of the cycle of co-personality-dependence.

When your biggest ratings and embedded hit counts come from fights  
between the various gargantuan egos on your anchor desk it should tell  
you two things.  First, that your have become addicted to on-air  
sideshows.  Second, that you have hauled your audience down with you  
into the blackness of personality-dependence addiction.  They are so  
starved for something real that they cannot comprehend that there  
might be something better than watching someone scream and push  
buttons to produce canned sound effects, or call a fellow anchor an  
intellectual lightweight.  Of course, when you run out of material for  
staged, behind-the-scenes drama, we are the next easiest target.  We  
are shocked.  May we recommend something novel?  Investigate something  
other than your co-anchor.  How about fraud?  Groundbreaking, we know.

All our criticism aside for a moment, we recognize that in many ways  
it is not your fault.  A drowning institution grasps at anything that  
floats.  If we are discouraged by anything it is your inability to  
just swim on your own.  Perhaps it has been so long that you've  
forgotten how.  That's easy to fix.  Kick your legs.  Breathe.  Do a  
lap.  Trust us.  They get easier.  Meanwhile, we'll keep researching  
and writing.  See you for couple's swim!