Wall Street's Line Between Spinning and Lying

The fact is that for all information you need to consider the source. With corporate media the "news" needs to be viewed in terms of how the reporter benefits from public perception.

The most resent classic example was MSNBC's Jim Mad Money Cramer berating a caller for doubting the financial stability of Bear Sterns days before the collapse.

The clip–which you can see here–includes some fireworks as Gasparino and Quick clash over issues such as short-selling, lying and the future of brokerage houses. Here is a sample, from around the two-and-a-half minute mark onward.

Charlie Gasparino: I think that's a problem with these CEOs. We sit around and we talk about short-sellers… I think you have to look at some of these words of some of these CEOs. A perfect example is Lehman Brothers saying Einhorn is wrong, when Einhorn is right. Or Alan Schwartz coming on CNBC saying 'everything is okay.' I know for a fact at that time, everything was not okay.

Becky Quick: Isn't a case of how fast these things change and move? Especially in the case of financials….

Gasparino: I'd like to think that, but I don't believe it in a lot of these cases. They're spinning. I'm not saying they're lying. But they are clearly spinning. When Dick Fuld comes out or Erin Callan comes out and says, we don't need to raise more capital, Einhorn is wrong. People buy the stock based on that….and then they buy the stock and something happens in the end. When you look at the stock price when they were making those statements about Einhorn and you look at the stock price now, there's a problem. I would say the same thing with Merrill and I would say the same things with Bear Stearns. When Bear Stearns comes on and says everything is okay and everything's not okay, that's a problem.

Quick: But Charlie…in a situation like this, in a situation like this things change very quickly. You're accusing them of lying.

Gasparino: No I'm not….I will say this: these firms may not be lying, but they are spinning heavily.

Quick: That's a very fine line – spinning and lying. It's one thing to say, this is where we think we are right now….