The overwhelming herding of AAPL's analysts highlighted by James Stewart in today's NY Times sets CNBC's Rick Santelli on a path of truthiness not often seen on business media. Citing the findings, most specifically, "analysts are, in the end, salesmen," Santelli notes that the average investor (listeners and viewers of financial media) have limited time and thus are forced to rely on this herd-like behavior. The audience, of course, hears what it wants to hear as confirmation or 'myside' bias' dominates each and every word uttered. But it's not just the financial analysts, its the political pundits who continue to abjectly ignore an exploding deficit in order to support the 'brand' of independence their media provides. The 'safety in numbers' argument holds up as the analysts group together - all knowing the reality ahead, but terrified to break ranks and admit the emperor is indeed naked.
↧