Om points to a Bloomberg piece quoting an analyst calling for Apple $600 within 18 months. I'm not going to comment on the prediction, since that's not what's interesting to me. If you're a no-name investment house (Daedalus Capital LLC) and you've got an eye-popping forecast, there's a good chance that Bloomberg will give you some air time.
Back in May, someone from Allegiant Asset Management managed to get quoted predicting that Google would make a bid for Dow Jones. It's one thing to make predictions that don't come true, but it's something else entirely to make a prediction that's as logical as Microsoft buying Smurfit-Stone so as to save on cardboard packaging for Windows 7.
Maybe other news orgs are just as likely to publish this stuff, but somehow these examples from Bloomberg stand out.
Hmm, making eye-popping predictions in order to get attention? And it actually works? Say it ain't so!
In theory, is this the reason why the bloggers who predicted 30% falls in the market for 2007, inevitable recessions, or declining markets almost every year for the past half-decade, are at the top of Alexa and Technorati popularity lists? Attention-getting, eye-popping claims?
FWIW, I consider Bloomers to be head and shoulders above CNBC in terms of reporting quality (with Faux Biz News below the floorboards), at least from the standpoint of radio and TV reporting. CNBC is far more sensationalist (on good AND bad news) than Bloomers, and Faux is like a cartoon network with wannabe porn actresses in charge.
Posted by: Bill aka NO DooDahs! | December 28, 2007 at 02:31 PM