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Controversies-Nickolas Maier, a former employee of Jim Cramer, alleged in his book, Trading with the Enemy (Collins, 2002), that Cramer would feed rumors to Bartiromo intended to affect the value of his positions when Bartiromo repeated them on the air. Time characterizes this as Cramer “gaming” Bartiromo. Cramer denied the accusation.[7]
In 2003, Bartiromo interviewed Citigroup’s CEO, Sanford I. Weill, she prefaced the interview with a “full disclosure” statement that she owned 1,000 shares of Citigroup stock. A number of journalism boards consider it unethical for reporters to own shares in the companies on which they report, and CNBC subsequently updated its disclosure policy.[8]
Media interest also surrounded Bartiromo when she broke live on CNBC that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke had told her at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in May 2006 that his position on interest rates was “misunderstood”. This appeared to indicate that Bernanke’s interest rate stance was less dovish than had been interpreted by some market analysts. Other members of the press, along with Bernanke himself, felt that the comments had been made off the record, and that by using her seemingly random seating position at the dinner, Bartiromo got access to market-making news which other reporters had no way of attaining (interest rates, and speculation on them, being a crucial price-setting tool for many financial instruments). A CNBC spokesman responded that Bernanke had never told Bartiromo that his remarks were off the record.[9]
In 2007, controversy arose over the nature of Bartiromo’s relationship with Todd Thomson, former chief of Citigroup’s wealth management unit. Thomson at one point flew with a group of employees to China, then left the employees to make their own arrangements for the trip back while he took the corporate jet back to the U.S. with Bartiromo.[10] In another instance, Thomson spent $5 million for the sponsorship of programming on the Sundance Channel that Bartiromo was tapped to host.[11] Thomson was eventually ousted by Citigroup for reasons including his contact with Bartiromo.[10] CNBC has stood by Bartiromo, claiming that her relationship with Thomson was a case of “legitimate business assignments”.[11
Author: NwoNewsNetwork
Keywords: CNBC Maria Bartiromo Money Honey Closing Bell bank of america bailout tarp stocks dow jones mortage buisness
Added: February 13, 2009
