Energy Politics

The Daily Show host Jon Stewart has made some national headlines recently when he attacked CNBC, and especially its news personality Rick Santelli, for basically being cheerleaders for big business.

Following Santelli’s criticism of the Barack Obama’s latest bailout plans, and especially his attack on subprime mortage holders for being losers who don’t deserve a government rescue, Stewart went on to show a montage of clips from CNBC during the past two years where Santelli and other CNBC personalities interviewed corporate executives of now defunct banks such as Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch as well as one glowing interview with Texas billionaire Robert Allen Stanfor, who is currently being investigated for running an allegedly fraudulant business scheme. Stewart essentially sought to show Santelli as a hypocrite for badmouthing mortage holders while defending the same banks who themselves received government bailout funds.

This whole thing has brought into light the integrity of business news, and just how trustworthy can financial journalism be. Stewart accused CNBC of sacrificing journalistic integrity and basically accepting corporate PR as fact without any independent research, and more importantly, for defending troubled finanical institutions through either downplaying bad news, asking only softball questions to corporate executives or by avoiding commentary on any legitimate criticism of business practices at the risk of looking anti-capitalist.

Which leads to the ultimate question: can financial journalism be trusted to be honest? Yes, it can. CNBC made the mistake of treating stock picks like its a carnival, and Jim Cramer is as much an entertainer as a financial advisor. But financial journalism is real service that is useful for people, and real journalism, not this cartoonish shouting match on cable, is about discerning critical and useful information to the masses.

Stewart wins this round, simply because he made the better argument that CNBC was guilty of a “sin of commission” in letting business programs use a supposedly legitimate media to act as its PR forum. But when he tries to stretch the argument that all financial journalism is inherently untrustworthy, I must take issue with that.

–Stephen Payne, Editor, Oil and Gas Investor This Week; www.OilandGasInvestor.com; spayne@hartenergy.com

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