It’s been a bumpy ride in the markets and as with any news with such a serious downside, the NBC “Nightly News” has been all over it.
But who they chose to be front and center for their coverage has been a bit curious. CNBC’s Jim Cramer has appeared on the “Nightly News” five times in 2007 and eight times on the “Today” show – the majority of those appearances in recent weeks. (Kudlow, anyone?)
There are a few chinks in Cramer’s armor, though. Beyond his infamous meltdown on August 6 and his admission in December 2006 on TheStreet.com (NASDAQ:TSCM), a financial Web site he launched in 1996, of manipulating the press to influence the markets when he was working at a hedge fund, he’s not an all-knowing stock guru.
An article by Bill Alpert in the August 20 Barron’s reported Cramer’s stock picks have lagged at a gain of 12 percent over the last two years versus 22 percent for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, 16 percent for the Standard & Poor’s 500 and 14 percent for the NASDAQ for the same time period.
CNBC’s response? “They [CNBC officials] said that the show is mainly educational, and not just about stock-picking,” wrote Alpert. “In the end, they said we should focus only on the tiny universe of stock selections – about 12 a week – that Cramer researches the most. And we should do it only for the issues picked this year.”
So if Cramer’s show is primarily educational, why is he regarded the “go-to guy” when it comes any dramatic shift in the financial world?
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Economic indicators
August 20, 2007 - 17:08 ET by JDWThe Board's index of leading economic indicators rose 0.4 percent in July.
JDW
News media: Scoreboard for terrorists
Cramer
August 20, 2007 - 17:13 ET by iveseenitallCramer---another fake exposed. LOL
NEVER,NEVER trust a "liberal"
Another
August 20, 2007 - 21:37 ET by M J BAnother fake!!http://www.newshounds.us/2007/08/18/fox_stock_gurus_make_rosy_predictions_three_weeks_before_panic.php#more
Less reliable than a monkey
August 20, 2007 - 19:27 ET by Ten7sProving once and for all that he's less reliable than a monkey with 100 darts, Cramer takes the naive on a haphazard 'walk down wall street'. Ever since his public, on-air admission of attempting to fraudulently manipulate investors (and perhaps before that), he seems to have been building an insanity defense in the event that he gets sued by his former fund investors and his naive fans, which is appearing more and more likely (though it looks like he'll have plenty of company, as well).
"he’s not an all-knowing
August 20, 2007 - 19:47 ET by ckc1227"he’s not an all-knowing stock guru."
You know, I figured this out for myself last year when I noticed that almost every stock he recommended on his show went nowhere. Luckily I never built my portfolio around his recommendations.
His "growth stock of the
August 20, 2007 - 20:10 ET by jwm45His "growth stock of the year" for 2007 (NYX) is down about 20%. Wall street hates this guy and I think they take huge bets against his calls.
Cramer
August 20, 2007 - 21:21 ET by River CityA liberal Cramer picks stocks that are losers. Liberals in charge of the education system means kids that don't get educated. A liberal welfare system means people who are stuck in a cycle of dependency. I see a pattern.
“Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.” Ronald Reagan