Financial Media: Worse than Useless

If I didn't know any better--and I'm not claiming I do--I'd maybe think about possibly planning on beginning to suspect the financial media of shilling for the financial community. Not that there's anything wrong with that...

Mr. Mortgage must have gimlets (alas, not giblets--yum!) for eyes, because he found this in a CNBC transcript that didn't make it to air:

BARTIROMO: SO RIGHT NOW WE HAVE, WHAT, 9,000 BANKS? 9,000 BANKS IN THIS COUNTRY. WHAT WILL YOUR PREDICTION BE AS FAR AS HOW MANY THERE ARE IN THE NEXT FIVE YEARS?

LEWIS: GOSH, I HAVEN’T THOUGHT ABOUTTHAT. MAYBE HALF.“

Yeah, I guess the average viewer didn't want to hear that from the CEO of (People's) Bank of (People's Democratik Republik of) Amerika, but still, don'tcha think maybe she shoulda heard it anyway? Not 'cause I want a run on yer local bank, but still...

And Gawker corroborates the impossibly improbable press censorship:

The Wall Street Journal is also censoring itself on behalf of large banks. Its spokesman said the newspaper would "stay away from" the words "crash," "panic," "pandemonium" and "apocalypse."

And CNN is clamping down on words like "meltdown" and "free fall," according to its senior business correspondent Ali Velshi.

In the end, prolly not so wise to bite yer feeder, whatever that wacky Elvis Costello dude might say:

I wanna bite the hand that feeds me.
I wanna bite that hand so badly.

Backstory:

On December 17, 1977, Elvis Costello and the Attractions performed as a last-minute replacement for the Sex Pistols, who were unable to obtain passports. NBC and the show's producer Lorne Michaels didn't want the band to perform "Radio Radio", since the song protests the state of the media. The band defied them by beginning to play their song "Less Than Zero", stopping, with Costello telling the audience that there was no reason to do that song, and telling the band to play "Radio Radio" instead. It infuriated Michaels because it put the show off schedule, and the band were barred from performing again.

Just what does he see in that Diana Krall tart anyway?!!