CNBC Killed the Market Yesterday, and Almost Killed My TV Today

I am terribly disappointed by some of what I am seeing on CNBC these days. It seems to be falling apart faster than GE, their parent company.

First, was yesterday on February 10, 2009, when Tim Geithner was about to unveil the Obama Adminstration’s new financial rescue plan. 5 minutes before the plan was due to be announced Steve Liesman came on and said that he had seen an advanced copy and the plan didn’t have a chance. Geithner, or should I say the market, never had a chance and the Dow was down 300 points before he ever started speaking.

I have no doubt that Steve Liesman is a class act. And, I would not accuse him of any sort of impropriety in driving the market down. But, the facts are clear, by noontime when Geithner sat down to do an exclusive interview with Liesman and Brian Williams, the Dow was down 400 points and looked like it might end up down 1000. I would be certain that CNBC’s ratings for the interview were 2 to 3x larger than they would have been otherwise.

Unlike Steve Liesman who is a class act, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld is not. I cannot figure out for the life of me who put him on the air today to do commentary when the CEOs of the country’s largest financial institutions were testifying before Barney Frank. Sonnenfeld has a petulance that just comes straight through the TV so strong, I actually started to expect my plasma screen to shatter. His commentary is entirely worthless as he always starts by explaining how great he is because he teaches at Yale. Then, when he comes up for air, he talks about how great are all of these “great friends” of his, including Jamie Dimon, Ken Lewis and John Mack. For some reason, he can never finish a sentence without trying to cram Bob Nardelli’s in his mouth as well.

While I am on Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, I should state that it is remarkable that this guy managed to save his career. It was about 10 years ago when he was kicked out of Emory after he was caught defacing the campus. That should have been the end of his career. Somehow, he wound up at Yale. Yale or no Yale, he doesn’t belong on CNBC.

So, why do I keep watching?

1) I know Liesman moves markets so I need to see what he says.

2) I love to see Michelle Caruso-Cabrera

3) Some of the guests are good – for example, Bar Rafaeli was on yesterday and she is excellent – but as I see more and more guests like Sonnenfeld, I am more and more inclined to switch over to Fox (but, that too is like watching amateur hour).