MISCmedia for 4/21/00
The Continuing Story of CNBC

A YEAR AGO, I wrote in this space about NBC's callous treatment and eventual dumping of what had been its longest-running soap opera, Another World.

At the time, I'd neglected to notice the network had, and has, another daytime drama incorporating many of the classic soap elements (heroes, villains, cliffhangers, short- and long-term plotlines, convoluted relationships, petty power battles) in a modern format, highlighting modern-day priorities and personal obsessions.

I speak, of course, of NBC's business-oriented cable channel, CNBC.

I've taken lately to having it on while I'm writing during the mornings.

The past two or three weeks have provided for especially gripping viewing, as you might imagine.

Last Friday, particularly it looked as if the great tech-stock bubble "pop," which I and many other market observers have impatiently awaited lo these past six months, had finally arrived.

In soap terms, it could be seen as an act of vengeful retribution by the established investors against those upstart bitch-goddess dot-coms and their coming-on-too-strong day-trader speculators. Comeuppance for all the concentration-of-wealth guys, those oh-so-easy-to-stereotype overgrown boys with their big-ass SUVs and their ever-beepin' cell phones. (Not to mention the billions of on-paper wealth lost by a certain Mr. Gates overnight.)

Of course, in the soaps as well as in real life, the relatively innocent may also suffer when the villains are brought down. A soap baddie might blurt out some devastating family secret in court, or might even commit suicide and set it up so a good guy will be framed with a marder charge.

In the case of the tech stocks, or the stock markets in general, millions of folks who've never even bought anything at Restoration Hardware have put their savings and their retirement funds into what market pundits had called the "irrational exuberance" of the dot-com-led bull market. With adjusted-for-inflation wages stagnant over the past decade or two for most non-wealthy folks, mutual funds and other stock-based investments have provided one way for middle-class and some upper-middle-class households to keep up with the rising costs of real estate, college tuition, etc. (My own family is such a beneficiary of such investments.)

And soap villains usually don't conveniently go away when they're found out. Not only do many of them avoid long jail terms, they can repeatedly cheat death itself.

And sure enough, the tech stocks you-love-to-hate came roaring back this Monday and Tuesday.

Similarly, we'll all be living for some time to come with the tech-stock hustlers and the enterprises they've built on the shaky foundation of stock speculation. The recent stock drops might have been relative or virtual, but the money these companies are burning through is real enough that a widespread Net-company depression could jeopardize thousands of careers.

(One contributing factor in last week's slump was an analyst's report claiming most of those new online retail ventures will fail within the next two years. But most new retail ventures of any type fail in their first five years, as anyone's who's been involved in a fledgling restaurant or flower store can tell you.)

One last comparison: On the soaps, storylines drag on more often than they crash and disappear. Same with stock-market storylines. And since the stock markets pay no attention to "sweeps weeks," anthing could happen on any particular day.

The next few weeks should be gripping viewing indeed.

MONDAY: Some short stuff.

ELSEWHERE:

• Visual news headlines (found by Slumberland)....
• "How to Tell a Yuppie from a Scandinavian-American...."

RECENT HIGHLIGHTS:

• James Twitchell-- one English prof who (hearts) marketing.
• The real reasons conservatives love baseball.
• USA Today turns 18, tries to start looking more mature.
• Back when downtown retail welcomed non-millionaire shoppers.
• Jim Hightower's selective memories of the pre-Clinton Democrats.
• Announcing the launch of MISCmedia Radio.
• Corporate warriors try to capture even more intellectual property.
• Parts one and two of a poet's fascination with the business press.
• Dave Eggers--Staggering Genius or just another hip-ironic bad boy?
• A drink to fair trade.
• Parts one and two of the clash between the arts scene and the info biz, and how it can be resolved.
• The potential savior of daily newsprint.
• You bet we've got demographics!
• Yet another all-time cool place in transition.
• Shorts about new-wave karaoke and other topics.

ARCHIVES:

• 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995, and 1986-94 columns
• Reviews of literature & art, monfiction & culture criticism, movies & videos, and music & noise
• Longer articles and essays
• The origin and future of MISCmedia