To Mute or Not to Mute…the Big Question on Financial News.
Since I got out of prison in 1993, after serving five years for insider trading, much has changed in the world, but not so much in the financial news. Turning on the tape in the morning still affords me that great free-market rush of watching the trading day leap to life. Nobody can diminish that—not the politicians eager to point fingers of blame at others on Wall Street as they did at me, not the pundits just as eager to promote their own fortunes, and not the TV producers who have gone beyond eagerness in their desperation to spin trading in a way that makes it more telegenic.
Whatever voices are vying to be heard, the flow of numbers is silent and tells its own truth. It is by nature mute, the record of invisible money moving between mostly anonymous buyers and sellers. That’s the beauty of it, to those like myself who love to watch. And that’s why so many TV viewers leave it mute—not bothering to turn on the sound on CNBC or Fox Business News (which does not display an actual tape, only fragments, thus depriving viewers of the intrinsic randomness though supplying some information).
Yet the mind wants some bit of news to pounce on, some way to explain the flow of numbers. Why is this trading one way and that another? Why is this group rising and that one falling? It is human to seek reasons—and that’s why even the most dedicated tape-watcher now and then, or more often, turns up the sound.
So who is worth listening to? What can you glean? I un-mute for these:
- Rick Santelli on CNBC. Reporting from the bond pits in Chicago, Santelli lets the trades tell the story.
- Sue Herrera on CNBC when she is probing the financial landscape with a single interviewee or in dialogue with a solid reporter. She is knowledgeable enough to know what to ask.
- Diana Olick on CNBC. She reports on real estate and gives the numbers straight up.
- Often, though not always, for Nicole Petallides and other market reporters on Fox Biz. A lot of data delivered.
What I leave the mute on for:
1. Santelli when he is being cut off and cut into by someone else, such as another reporter. I do not think financial news reporting is improved by loud combat.
2. Herrera when she is joined in conversation by more than one other person. More voices at the party only dilute her contribution.
3. Anyone who tries to insinuate ideology, partisan politics, and stabbing hand gestures into the discourse. Free markets are blissfully free of personal squabbles—the numbers call all the shots.
Please let me know who you un-mute for and why. I think it’s time for viewers of financial news to weigh in on what financial news really is.
Your fellow viewer,
Sam Bronoff
p.s. Next week I’ll address the question of Copy Cat-ch-up posed by the competition between CNBC and Fox Business News. I’m sure other men have noticed…there’s a new leggy look.
