[lookout123]

People have this mistaken idea that the media is still full of journalists who feel compelled to find and report the truth of the world around us, because "people have the right to know".

Turn on your tv and look for a homely broadcaster. Not going to happen. As long as they look good and can read the teleprompter, they're in. Sometimes they don't have to be that good at reading.

Turn on the radio and listen for someone who reports the news of the day in an unbiased, truthful, informative way. Not going to happen. Entertainment rules the airwaves.

The fact of the matter is the media exists for one reason: profit. The way they profit is by selling commercial space. The way they sell commercial space is by gaining and maintaining market share in listeners and viewers. There are only two ways they can get you to tune in daily, 1) Excite you, 2) Scare you. No one would tune into a channel that started their broadcast with, "Today the world was pretty much as it has always been. Some people made money, some people lost money, some people died, and some were born. Here are today's events..." So they have to excite or scare. They aren't creative enough to come up with compelling, positive stories that are also exciting, but they have scaring the public down to a science.
Take the lead paint story as an example. I've been following that one pretty closely so I know which toys are involved. But they got my attention last night with their teaser talking about the dangers found in "some of these toys your children may be playing with right now. Tune in for the details after the break." They showed a woman holding two toys that my son has that I was certain weren't included in the concerns. But they kept my attention for 30 freakin' minutes only to finally report that "toys are dangerous! The chinese are malicious! these toys we've been showing in our teasers are perfectly safe! But what if they weren't?!?" It is exactly what I figured but they still got me to keep their broadcast on.

They do the same thing with financial reports. I have a couple of media types as clients. I can promise you that they know nothing about money or investments, but they sound very convincing when they are expounding on the dangers of rising oil prices and the impending collapse of our economy. I literally saw one "journalist" gravely report that the economy was in danger of spinning out of control because oil went up that day. The very next day oil went down and this very same journalist reported how falling oil prices could lead to broadbased dangers for investors. HUH? Which is it,oh wise one?

The best thing you can do is turn off your tv. If you invest interview and hire an advisor based on his plan for downside money management. It isn't how much you make, it's how much you keep and volatile markets are where an advisor earns his money, or gives you reason to fire him.