CNBC Copies Fox Business Network With Houston, TX Coverage

-By Warner Todd Huston

Well, when I said that CNBC’s business coverage was “playing catch up” with Fox Business Network, I didn’t know how close to the truth I had it as this month, CNBC copied FBN’s coverage from last fall of the amazing growth that Houston, Texas has seen over the last few years.

Back on September 20 of last year I noted that Fox Business Network’s Melissa Francis hosted a tour of the growing Texas economy in a series of reports FBN titled “Open for Business in Houston.”

At that time, Francis told the Houston Business Journal how amazing the business climate was down in Texas.

“You guys are making hay while the rest of the country is struggling,” said Francis. “And people don’t understand how much (Houston) has branched out. There’s so much oil and gas industry concentrated there, but so much more going on.”

Around that time Francis, known as the “Empress of Energy,” was also reporting on the gas and oil industry and it wasn’t long before CNBC was throwing up its own broadcasts on that topic covering all the same ground Francis covered on FBN.

Well, now CNBC is playing catchup again by copying Francis’ Houston theme.

This month, CNBC went down to Houston in a series it called “Houston: Open For Business.” That doesn’t at all sound like FBN’s “Open for Business in Houston,” does it?

Here is a clip of the CNBC show:

Not too familiar at all, eh?

Playing catchup, indeed. And this time months late.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson

Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, RightPundits.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.

For a full bio, please CLICK HERE.


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