TVSquad

Isn't there a rule where you can't say something about yourself or it automatically makes it untrue? Like if you call yourself "hip" or "cool" then that means you're not hip or cool?

I thought of that when I read this piece (scroll down) about CNBC's Maria Bartiromo. Several years ago people gave her the nickname "Money Honey" because she talked about finance on the network and...well, look at her. It was revealed that Bartiromo herself had trademarked the "Money Honey" phrase last year, and now Hamptons mag tells us why. She's starting her own show titled Money Honey.

How is she going to be able to say "Hello and welcome to Money Honey" with a straight face? Will she wear bikinis and evening gowns for various stock segments? Will there be Money Honey Dancers to entertain viewers?

[via TV Newser]

Enron: the Smartest Guys in the Room, the Academy Award-nominated documentary from 2005 that tells the story of the Enron scandal, will be featured on PBS' Independent Lens showcase on April 24 at 10:00 p.m. The televised version also features a new conversation from January 2007 with co-authors Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind, two Fortune reporters who wrote the book The Smartest Guys in the Room, on which the documentary is based.

I was kinda obsessed with CNBC in the mid to late 90s, when the stock and internet boom was in full throttle. The station was quite entertaining, even if I didn't really understand all the numbers. The personalities on the channel kept things lively and fun.

And one of my favorites was Maria Bartiromo, the really hot Wall Street babe financial expert who was dubbed the "Money Honey." I can't remember who dubbed her that, but it fit. And now you can still call her the "Money Honey," only this time it's official. Bartiromo has filed a trademark registration for the term, and it's been trademarked for many things, including coloring books, notepad, comic books, and coupon books.

Wow, a Maria Bartiromo coloring book. I would so buy that.

Bartiromo is in the news for other reasons lately as well.

For all you CNBC fans who can't get enough breaking news about Wall Street, money, stocks, bonds, and corporate deals have a new place to hang out: CNBC.com has re-launched.

A quick look around the site and you'll see lots and lots of numbers and lots and lots of colors. You get a live stock chart, exclusive online-only content (for example, this morning they had an interview with Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Michael Moskow), a video player, daily schedules and diaries, and a ton more. It's all very busy and the layout out could be a bit better, but it will be a good resource.

There was a time - in the mid to late 90s - when I was sort of addicted to watching CNBC. Those days have gone, but it's good that the info is still there at the click of your remote control (and mouse).

(Note: the main CNBC.com page is for financial info. If you're looking for the page for the TV network CNBC specifically (show info, schedules, pictures of Maria Bartiromo), then you should go here.)

[via TV Newser]

If you didn't notice (which is fine, people shouldn't obsess over things like this like we do), MSNBC debuted a new news crawl and new on-screen graphics this morning. So far, it's a thumbs down.

While CNN and FOX News have cleaner, squared off graphics, MSNBC has gone with funky, pointy boxes on the right hand side that show the time and the MSNBC logo, while the left hand side shows the stock report. It's great that they separated the time and stocks, so now both can be on the screen at the same time, but the way they've done the boxing, it looks odd (and the text on the screen sometimes overlaps the new graphics, which isn't good). The crawl is odd too, because it doesn't crawl across the entire screen, only half of it (the stocks block the rest of the screen), and since only so many words can stay on the screen at once, it takes several seconds to even figure out what the story is about (but maybe that's on purpose, to make you stick around longer).

The new MSNBC logo is good though. It keeps the colorful peacock but it's now a lot thinner. Too bad they didn't put good boxes and a better setup around it. And I think it's time to get rid of the "MS" part. Why not just make it NBC News Channel now?

There was about a year and a half when I was completely addicted to CNBC. It was the mid to late 90s, around 97 or 98, when I was starting to write more online and became fascinated by how technology was driving the economy and stock market to new heights. I remember having CNBC on all day along (along with CNN and MSNBC), and I loved seeing all the numbers fly by the bottom of the screen. Sure, I had no idea what any of it meant, but CNBC also had a lighter, pop culture bent to it that made it entertaining. I watched Power Lunch every afternoon, I waited for interviews with the CEOs of companies I was intererested in (like Steve Jobs from Apple - that was a big comeback story), and I even got to know the anchors and reporters (oh, Maria Bartiromo!).

Then the bubble burst and people didn't really enjoy watching CNBC anymore. And now it's really a shadow of what it used to be. But now two guys are trying to make it good again. Ex-Today producer Jonathan Wald and ex-60 Minutes producer Josh Howard have been brought on to pump new life into the business network. The duo plans more documentaries, as well as other big changes for the network.

What do you think needs to be done to CNBC to make it better?