CNBC's Maria Bartiromo is getting a free pass -- from CNBC - Mar... http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/cnbcs-maria-bartiromo-gett...

Get Quote: Symbol(s) Find symbol Search: Keyword(s) Advanced search

Get a trading partner. Talk to Chuck.

NEWS & COMMENTARY MARKETS MUTUAL FUNDS & ETFS PERSONAL FINANCE TOOLS & RESEARCH MY MARKETWATCH TODAY'S VIDEO

JON FRIEDMAN'S MEDIA WEB CNBC erred by giving Bartiromo a free pass Commentary: GE's business-news network damaged its credibility

By Jon Friedman, MarketWatch Last Update: 7:37 AM ET Jan 26, 2007

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- CNBC showed bad judgment this week by putting the interests of its biggest star, Maria Bartiromo, over those of its viewers.

Consider that at New York-based Citigroup's annual media reception on Wednesday night, one of the hot conversation topics had nothing to do with the company's earnings or the World Economic Forum or the gargantuan Wall Street bonuses. It was this question:

Has anyone noticed how CNBC has covered The Story?

And you couldn't blame anybody for smirking.

Actually, they meant: Has anyone noticed how CNBC has NOT covered The Story (smirk, smirk).

They were referring to the hubbub involving Citigroup (C ) and CNBC's Bartiromo, linking the biggest financial services company and the most famous journalist at the most prominent business-news television network.

Citigroup senior executive Todd Thomson, the head of Citigroup's wealth-management division, exited at a time when the financial company's stock price has lagged that of its rivals and the management has been widely criticized for failing to rein in expenses.

On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal's page-one story noted that Thomson used more than $5 million from his department's marketing budget to sponsor a new TV show for the Sundance Channel. The program's hosts were scheduled to include actor/director Robert Redford and Bartiromo. (For the record, Bartiromo is no longer slated to host the show)

Further, the Journal said the embattled and "angry" Citigroup CEO Charles Prince told directors that the expense was one of Thomson's lapses of judgment -- "from improper use of Citigroup's jet to ... spending Citigroup money on functions featuring Ms. Bartiromo."

The Journal said Citigroup executives were bothered by Thomson's flying Bartiromo from Beijing to New York on a Citigroup company plane. (CNBC has said Bartiromo's trip had been approved by the network.)

This saga goes beyond being titillating gossip. This is news. It encompasses a shake-up at one of America's most important companies, business and journalism ethics -- as well as, ultimately, CNBC's credibility and image.

Apparently, CNBC's damage-control strategy is to hope that this unwanted intrusion will play itself out and simply go away. The network may not be so lucky, in this age of blogs.

Anyway, CNBC bills itself as The Worldwide Leader in Business News. Bartiromo is a legitimate TV star. Those two factors alone make the story worthwhile and compel CNBC to report on it.

Neglect

Some media outlets have treated Citigroup-Bartiromo as a story.

Reuters reported: "The friendship between television news anchor Maria Bartiromo and former Citigroup executive Todd Thomson raises questions about ethical boundaries between reporters and their sources, experts said."

CNBC is giving Bartiromo what amounts to a free pass. To some outraged media observers, CNBC's neglect seems like something of a scandal in itself. After all, how can one of its journalists ever again bemoan corporate disclosure problems with a straight face?

Officials at the company maintain the network and Bartiromo have done nothing wrong. They don't want to inflame a touchy situation by dignifying what insiders describe as scurrilous rumors. Further, the network's officials contend that there was no conflict in their decision to leave her name out of its Citigroup coverage. The CNBC officials argue that the network's coverage of Citigroup has been aggressive.

Fox

The timing of this has to disturb CNBC as well. It's bracing for the launch of Fox's business channel. While Fox has officially confirmed nothing, experts expect, at the very least, an announcement by the end of the year.

The threat places CNBC in a precarious position. If CNBC angers Bartiromo, she could bolt to Fox when her contract expires.

Perhaps CNBC, part of the NBC News umbrella, is merely doing the bidding of its image-conscious parent, General Electric (GE ) .

For her part, Bartiromo is more than an ordinary journalist. She is practically a brand name. Bartiromo hosts the "Wall Street Journal Report with Maria Bartiromo." (The Journal, like MarketWatch, is a unit of Dow Jones) and was said to be a candidate to fill on-air openings at shows ranging from NBC's "Today" to ABC's "The View."

This week, Bartiromo has been reporting and conducting interviews from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Bartiromo has worked hard to defuse her sex-kitten image. My Aug. 9 column last year was entitled, "In appreciation of CNBC's Maria Bartiromo." I wrote: "Thanks to good, old fashioned hard work, Bartiromo has outgrown the frivolous 'Money Honey' label that the nickname-loving media stamped on her a decade ago."

CNBC said in a press release: "Maria Bartiromo is one of the most prolific and well-respected financial journalists in the industry, who works tirelessly around the world in the service of business journalism. In 2006 alone, she made 46 public appearances on behalf of CNBC. Her travel has been company-related and approved, and involved legitimate business assignments. Her record and reporting speak for themselves."

1 of 2 1/27/07 9:46 PM CNBC's Maria Bartiromo is getting a free pass -- from CNBC - Mar... http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/cnbcs-maria-bartiromo-gett...

I wish Bartiromo would have commented this week about her horrendous judgment in hopping a ride on a corporate jet of a company she is covering so closely. She should've taken a commercial flight to ease any suspicion of favoritism by Citigroup, if nothing else. And her employer should have told her that. Bartiromo referred all inquiries to CNBC. The company didn't go beyond issuing the glowing press release.

Disclosure

If Bartiromo didn't do anything wrong, then why isn't CBNC covering the story? If she goofed, CNBC and she should talk about it. Once that is done, people will move on, to the next big story, the next whiff of scandal. The faster a company addresses an embarrassment, the faster it will go away.

CNBC is overlooking a valuable business lesson. The cover-up is invariably more damaging to a company's image than the act itself. By giving Bartiromo a free pass, CNBC is hurting its image and failing its viewers.

Sure, it would be unpleasant for a network to talk about its role in such a public debacle. But CNBC should feel downright embarrassed for acting as if it never happened at all.

MEDIA WEB QUESTION OF THE DAY: Should CNBC have reported on the fiasco?

FRIDAY STORY OF THE WEEK: "Time Inc. bleeds as Detroit guts mag spend" by Nat Ives (Advertising Age). Despite an inelegant headline, the story does well to explain the circumstances surrounding Time Inc.'s layoffs.

A READER RESPONDS to my column asking whether the media will someday treat Jimmy Carter's legacy as kindly as they judged that of Gerald Ford.: "An objective obituary for Jimmy Carter would describe him as a rejected politician who carried lifelong bitterness." Roderick Moffett

(Media Web is published on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays)

Jon Friedman is a senior columnist for MarketWatch in New York.

2 of 2 1/27/07 9:46 PM