The caffeine-pumped anchorman for the CNBC financial news channel was interviewing a British fund manager who looked like a retired colonel with a heart rate of 40bpm. He congratulated him on the 42% profit he had made on his emerging market fund and asked the Brit some general stuff, like,

"Can you do it again next year?"

He said he could, but not so spectacularly as before, but he would still kick ass. (My words not his!)

When asked about his tactics, the Brit mentioned that he had a team scouring the world investigating companies. He had interests in India, Russia, Brazil...

Remember yesterday? The world absorbed the news of the death of Bhutto. The anchorman was straight in with his shit- stirring stick.
"In view of the events unfolding in Pakistan over the last 48 hours, is that going to change your strategy for the coming year?"

The Brit looked at him like he had just been asked to stick a red hot poker up his jacksy and sing Rule Britannia.

"I don't think so. For a start I have no investments in Pakistan, and if you check your facts you will see that the Indian stock market just closed at a record high. That tells you what the neighbors think about the troubles in Pakistan."

Slap that idiot down. Sensationalist, uninformed - and that describes one of the better US news stations!

Where's the perspective?

Whatever happened to balanced reporting? There is just so little perspective behind the news here. For instance, following the assassination of Bhutto, her supporters were distraught and angry. I am not saying that there will not be major issues to come, but within minutes the news stations were reporting insurrection - illustrated by something akin to a tire burning outside a hospital. The fire filled the frame.

It reminded me of the shots of the recent White House annexe ablaze. The camera was trained on smoke billowing from an open window. It looked really bad, until the cameraman put some perspective on the whole event. As he panned out, you could see that the conflagration (that the reporter confirmed was not a terrorist attack) was little more than a glorified fire in a wastepaper basket. From potential terror attack to a cigarette in a basket and back to normality again.

Endless destructive cycle

This is a really sick and draining cycle of info overload that is acted out hour after hour, day in day out. And the problem is, it is counter-productive. ie if you are trying to plan for the future you need some sense of stability and order. So why are there so few restrictions on the news people who seem to revel in trying to destabilise the economy, society etc with this incessant over reporting of every day life?

The whole country is caught up in this surging tide of BS news. It is like a big suction pad, drawing everybody into the melee. It isn't healthy, and is so unnecessary. Can the powers-that-be not instil some standards of decency and accuracy in the media for everybody's good?

Surely it is obvious that something needs to change when a cold Brit who made 42% profit acting cool can so easily show a jacked-up anchorman for the sensationalist idiot that he is, without even trying.