CNBC Fracas Unveils Financial Journalism's Dirty Little Secret

An article in the New York Times today describes how CNBC has blurred the lines (such as they are) between business punditry and journalism, and says:

CNBC is now a place for politics, to borrow a phrase from its sister channel MSNBC. The network’s journalists have been encouraged to speak their minds, making the line between reporter and commentator almost indistinguishable at times.

This seems a bit odd coming from the Times, which has deployed some of its best reporters, from Tom Friedman to Joe Nocera, into writing columnists that are deeply opinionated. But I guess the thing about the article that interested me is how it almost, but didn't quite, touch upon financial journalism's dirty little secret.

Which is, of course, that financial journalists tend to be a bit more conservative than journalists in general. You might say that NBC has both flanks covered, with MSNBC on the left and CNBC on the right. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

© 2009 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.