[Infowarrior] - Ritholtz: How to Fix Financial Television

[Richard Forno]

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/06/how-to-fix-financial-television/

Over the past 5 years, I have appeared on various Financial TV shows  
over a 100 times. But I am also a huge consumer of financial news, in  
print, on the web, radio, and of course, TV. Being on both sides of  
the camera gives me a fairly good perspective on what does and doesn’t  
work on TV. I also have some strong  ideas as to what is good and bad  
TV in terms of providing a social utility, being part of the  
democratic process, etc.

Indeed, this is a longstanding interest of mine. Over the weekend, I  
referenced the current Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) issue that  
focused on the role of the media in the credit crisis, stock market  
and economic collapse (CJR on CNBC, WSJ & Business Press). This area  
has long interested me (hence, our media panel at TBP conference). But  
I was surprised this post generated 100 comments from readers.

One emailer challenged me on CJR’s CNBC piece: “Its easy to complain,  
but what would you do to “fix” Financial Television?”

Challenge accepted. Here are my general suggestions

How to Fix Financial Television

1. Stop Yelling. Stop interrupting. Stop Talking Over Each Other:   
This is not Jerry Springer, its serious business. People’s retirement  
and investments are at stake. Please treat it that way.

2. Bring us People We Don’t Have Access to.  What various FinTV  
channels do really well is when they bring us long, thoughtful  
interviews with the likes of Warren Buffett, WIlliam Ackman, David  
Einhorn, and others. People we wouldn’t ordinarily have access to.  
Example: This morning, CNBC had on James Rickard.  More of this please.

3.   S - L - O - W    D - O - W - N

4.  Risk:  All traders must appreciate the potential downside of  
trades. So too, must FinTV. Explain stop losses. Understand Risk/ 
Reward. Recognize there are periods when Buy & Hold is a jumbo loser.

5.  Lose the Octobox. Fire whoever came up with the Decabox.   ‘Nuff  
said.

6. Separate the Signal from the Noise.  Understand that most of the  
day-to-day action is simply noise. Look at a long term chart, you can  
barely see 9187 or 9/11. If those major events get lost in the long  
term trend, what does the intraday jags, kinks and reversals mean?  
Very little. Recognize that not every data release, slice of news, or  
rumor is at all significant. Stop treating them as if they were.

7.  Fact Check: An awful lot of things on air get stated with  
authority and confidence. Much of them are little more than junk or  
pop myths. Why is it that the more dubious a proposition is, the  
greater the confidence the speaker seems to muster? Consider fact  
checking as much of the statements that are made on air as possible,  
and making frequent corrections.

8.  Accountability is important:  I am astounded at some of the money  
losing hacks that are various shows again and again. These are the  
“articulate incompetants” to use Bennett Goodspeed’’s phrase.  Why not  
keep track of the records of guests — and let the viewers know how  
their past few calls have been. Are they Perma-bulls or bears? Are  
their stock picks awful? Are they reliable money makers? If not, let  
us know. (Of course, the better question is, if not, why even have  
them on?)

9. Bring Back Louis Rukeyser: Not the man, but rather, his style. Wall  
$treet Week — Rukeyser hosted it from 1970 to 2005 — was plain-spoken,  
thoughtful and accessible. Quiet, contemplative, discussions, with  
intelligent market participants, revealing helpful information. The  
investing public would appreciate something of that sort — again.

10. Sound FX:  What is with all the bizarre sound effects every time a  
screen changes? Its financial news, not a video game.  Kill ‘em.

11.  Embed your video (on your own website or YouTube) instead of  
using WMP.  At long last, thank you.

12. Investigative Pieces:  David Faber seems to have a monopoly on  
deep, long thoughtful analyses. Be they on Wal-Mart, the credit  
crisis, whatever, his long format work is a highlight of CNBC. More of  
these, please.

13. Most stock picks are losers. That’s normal, but the audience does  
not realize this. A big part of the challenge is informing the viewer  
that finding the biog winners is a low probability, high outcome  
event. As in a baseball, a 350 hitter is a star. Explain this to your  
audience.

14. Stop the Bull/Bear Debate:  This is a vast over-simplification of  
the market, and often does not serve the audience well. There are  
nuances and variables that get lost when you reduce everything to  
black and white.

15. Partisanship: Leave your personal politics at home. Viewers don’t  
care what most of you think.

16. Respect the Audience: We are adults. Treat us that way.