Did CEOs mislead journalists to take U.S. investors for a ride?

New York: It was an allegedly cozy relationship between some financial journalists and some of the CEOs in the U.S. that led to the latters successfully manipulating the formers and thereby misleading investors to pump their hard earned money into the stocks of falling down companies.

And now, as Vikram Doctor writes in The Economic Times, many comedians, cartoonists, columnists are all on a roll as they attack the blunders of banks, bailouts and Ben Bernanke - Federal Reserve Chairman who predicted recession could end this year.

One company that's already monetizing on such comedies is Viacom. Its Comedy Central network has been breaking U.S. audience records for comedy shows with programs like The Colbert Report and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

Last week's scrap between Jon Stewart and James Cramer of CNBC added more dimensions to such trends. It was when Rick Santelli, a CNBC commentator, lashed out at President Obama's stimulus package, that a verbal war started between the comedy and financial channels, with another top CNBC host Jim Cramer, becoming the cynosure of the controversy. After Rick Santelli's performance on TV, Stewart, in his two episodes of The Daily Show, went all out at CNBC - lambasting its commentators and anchors for enjoying a cozy relationship with CEOs taking small investors for a ride.

Though CNBC had not replied to Stewart in the beginning, but later Cramer could not help going directly on Stewart's show to be taken apart comprehensively. On the show, the normally hardboiled Cramer turned almost craven, apologizing for mistakes, admitting shortcomings, protesting that he had been misled by the corporate chiefs he interviewed, and even begging for a chance to prove himself as a sincere, objective financial journalist.

However, Stewart made it clear that it wasn't Cramer or CNBC that were the real targets, but most of the financial press. What Stewart was attacking was how business journalists had connived at inflating the markets and not asked the tough questions to the company heads whose companies would subsequently collapse. One clip he aired showed an interview with Sir Allen Stanford where he was asked questions like how he'd managed to avoid the crisis, and what it was like being a billionaire. Shortly afterwards, Stanford was arrested for fraud, says the article.

Taking the sort of extreme advocacy of personal opinions and stock selections was Cramer's style of financial journalism - a style that has seeped into American business channels from political channels like Fox which have thrived on combative, strongly personal delivery of views rather than news.

Business tends to opacity, so it's harder to get real access and independent analyses, and responsible journalists should always make the limits of their knowledge clear. Investors must now remember that the only people they can trust is themselves. Journalists provide the information that helps, but only investors can look out for themselves. This opacity of business is also what made it easy for CEOs like Stanford to manipulate journalists. "I thought they were my friends and they lied to me," said Cramer.