A poster the other day wrote:
Am I the only one who thinks CNBC does not spend anywhere near enough time investigating the GE collapse? I mean the GE Capital disaster is as bad as AIG and worse than Bank of America and Citigroup! GE will be a HUGE bailout for the U.S. taxpayers (50*1) leverage and CDS insurance that is to the moon. Can you say huge bailout that will dwarf AIG! Armageddon.
Another posted wrote:
Good point! Why isn’t Faber doing an investigative piece on the GE Ponzi scheme?
A documentary about CNBC/GE would be outstanding. And if you criticize them? They will fight back for sure. I expect it. For example, in early 07 CNBC invited me to their offices. Paid my travel. I did not have specific knowledge of what they wanted, but I knew I was meeting with Susan Krakower the producer who invented Cramer’s show. I assumed they were looking for content and I was right. I was led into a small office with Krakower and her two lieutenants. Seinfeld fans? Remember when Jerry and George went to meet with NBC. You know that odd feel that was portrayed with media executives? Where their offices had promotional posters all over? That was Krakower’s office. A big Cramer poster hanging behind her desk. Krakower herself was mid-50ish and her two lieutenants mid-thirties. They flanked me on either side. I was triangulated so to speak and peppered with questions. I am still not sure how they decided they should talk to me as they seemed to have no clue what I did, what I wrote about or what my thinking was. Would it surprise anyone that when Krakower asked me to hypothetically program 10 hours of airtime for CNBC that I said my programming would be nothing like the tips and fundamentals of Cramer? I pretty much said all of that was bunk. Clearly, I am not very good at playing the game and could immediately tell that my comment had just insulted the CNBC cash cow. We bounced around for 30 minutes and we never had a further conversation. It was quite an experience. What struck me the most was the manufacturing of the business news there. All that on air talent that looks overly excited every single minute they are on air is all a mirage. Once they walk off set (which you can see when you are there), they go back to their desks. Just normal people eating lunch and doing whatever. There is no excitement in the studio and offices. The excitement is only on the TV.
Fast forward from that early 2007 meeting to late 2007 and I was square in the middle of my documentary production. Trying to get their view, their opinion on market events, I made little progress. I sent this email to Cramer:
Hi Jim, I asked someone who knows you why you would turn us down and they said you were a “control freak”. I am not buying it. You seem like you would take anything head on. I just interviewed Bill Miller. Harry Markowitz and David Harding of London based Winton Capital are coming up. Half hour of your time that’s it. What’s there to lose? I want to see you get your point of view out there, instead of us just using b-roll of you.
Cramer responded to me:
While I would love to help I am sorry but I can’t.
I thought that was an odd response, but was not deterred as we did land Maria Bartiromo…until she canceled at the last minute leaving me a classic meandering voice mail. So, yes, I think the CNBC/GE story would be fantastic. While the media likes to portray the image of being on the peoples’ side, they are really just on their side.
