Money

Ben Stein explains how business news became the new Victoria’s Secret catalog…and what you can learn from the sirens of stock TV.

By: Ben Stein; Photographs: Jason Bell
Published: April 2008   [ Updated: Aug 29, 2008 - 11:47:55 AM ]

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Alexis Glick, Jenna Lee, and Shibani Joshi, photographed in New York City, January 2008 Jenna Lee, Fox Business anchor Alexis Glick, Anchor and VP of Business News for Fox Business
Shibani Joshi, Fox Business News reporter Jenna Lee, Fox Business anchor
Shibani Joshi, Fox Business News reporter
To begin at the end, it’s morning over on Sixth Avenue in Manhattan, and yours truly is in the green room for a show on Fox Business. The green room is jammed, as usual, with celebrities. The only one I recognize is Trace Adkins, the country star. But that’s not the point, my friend. The point is the beautiful women. There’s Liz Claman, and there’s my secret dream girl, Dagen McDowell, and above all, there is the heart-stoppingly beautiful, ultrayoung and cute Jenna Lee, and the big boss, Alexis Glick, also beautiful. And then there are some others I don’t know yet, but I’d like to.

The point is that they’re all young, all beautiful, and all here to talk about the economy and business and the falling dollar and fears of inflation and the credit crisis. And it’s all a torrent of young women, and they’re all gorgeous, and I’m thinking, Why? Where did they all come from?

When I finished with my appearances on Fox, I hightailed it back to my hotel room, and who should be waiting there to interview me but the one and only original money honey, the one who put the whole concept on the map, Maria Bartiromo of CNBC. She has been around a few years now, and she has seen her share of controversy lately. But she’s the last word in gossip and fact about finance, she is still looking mighty sweet, and she even knows more than a little about the inner workings of the financial world.

And the next day, there’s CNN, and in the dressing room and the makeup room, there are still more of them.

How did it happen? I cast my mind back a mere four decades to when I was a financial reporter for the Bureau of National Affairs. When I went to press conferences at the departments of Labor and Commerce, there were no women reporters. When my pop was chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers back in the Nixon and Ford days, the reporters who covered his speeches were paunchy old men with thick glasses and dandruff on the lapels of their cheap suits. There sure weren’t any cute girls. I would have remembered. Even 10 years ago, Bartiromo was just about the only one. Where did they all come from?

Some say it was all because of Maria and her star power and her astonishing interviewing abilities and her endless energy. Everyone wanted the next Maria, and so they took on a string of beautiful women to try to imitate her. (And CNBC took on one of the ultimate money honeys, the staggeringly lovely Erin Burnett, proof positive that the Irish are the master race.) But CNBC has many male stars reporting on the markets. Why didn’t everyone imitate them? Fox has the dominant Neil Cavuto. Why didn’t everyone imitate Neil? And CNN has Lou Dobbs talking brilliantly about international trade. Why not imitate him? And the reigning clown prince of finance on TV is, of course, Jim Cramer, and he’s a star. Why not get a whole bunch of bald, screaming comedians to do TV business news? And then there’s the only one who really knows the stats and the theory like the former Wall Street executive he is, Larry Kudlow. Why not more Kudlows?

No. What we have is a flood, a casting call, a tsunami of money honeys. Respectfully submitted, then, here are my theories as to why so many gorgeous girls are being drawn into the maw of TV news, reporting on business and finance.