For a "reasonable" price, they will even tell you that tobacco is great for you and your health!
For a variety of reasons, bad advice is far more profitable than good advice. Take a look at who pays for advertising on television, radio, magazines, and newspapers. You don't really expect the media to savagely maul the hand that feeds them, do you?
One of the earliest and most successful idea is that if you tell a big lie often enough, people will begin to believe it!
The financial media people have taken that interesting concept one brilliant step further. By taking a number of absolutely true facts and mixing them with a little innuendo, they have been able to create big lies!
Financial media is not always fair, objective, or impartial. While the various Commissions complicate the lives of financial media by requiring correct documentation and fair disclosures, financial media has found that it can still convey distorted messages.
On the other hand, you will be hard-pressed to find one outright lie. While each fact has been extensively researched and verified, it is the emphasis and small inflated details that manage to pass on the false image.
Not all reporters are experts in their field! It's perfectly possible to be a financial reporter without ever having taken a course in economics. It's perfectly possible to be successful in the trade without having read a book on the subject in the last twenty years.
Economic theory has evolved rapidly in the last years and many reporters haven't done their homework. Then again, they don't need to; it's too easy to interview people and quote on yesterday's market close.
Of course, the really bright reporters quickly find that financial theory doesn't worth their time. There are lots of really bright reporters who could teach courses in economics. But they are trapped into covering the same old stories the same old way!
That's what the people want, expect, and pay for!
That's not only what sells ...
It's what advertisers want and pay for!
There is a whole industry out there that gets paid very well for filling your head with garbage!
Investors have got to realize that this type of commentary is worth far less than zero!
