Years ago, the expression was “Never pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel” (meaning newspapers).  The modern, updated version is “Never pick a fight with people who have ascerbic, award winning comedy writers, a broad TV reach, and a strong internet presence…”

Barry Ritholtz:

Years ago, the expression was “Never pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel” (meaning newspapers).  The modern, updated version is “Never pick a fight with people who have acerbic, award winning comedy writers, a broad TV reach, and a strong internet presence ...”

From last year's best-of:

If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck.

You are more likely to become a better athlete by watching ESPN than you are likely to become a better investor by watching CNBC.

CNBC is about helping companies to present and manage their public image. CNBC endeavors to instill in viewers the sense that they are well-informed, but this is mostly just a tactic designed to keep them tuned in. The 'viewers' are really just eyeballs for advertising -- the paid placements, of course, but also the 'coverage', which is only another form of advertising.

Television programming that actually made you a more effective investor would probably look a lot like graduate school. If that's what you want, there are places to get it, and you don't even have to sit through the ads.

From the archive, P.J. O'Rourke:

I wonder, when was the last time a talk show changed a mind?

Nouriel Roubini, in a recent interview with Maria Bartiromo:

When the best minds of the country are all going to Wall Street, there is a distortion in the allocation of human capital to some activities that become excessive and eventually inefficient.