Bob CollinsThe New York Stock Exchange doesn’t stop for anybody, but it paused for a moment of silence this morning for CNBC anchor Mark Haines, who died suddenly today at 65.
Haines was a rare gift to the world of journalism, TV journalism in particular. He actually listened to the answers he was being given by people who were trying to put one over on him, and he wasn’t afraid to call them on it. Just last August, I wrote on News Cut at the time, he called out a Wells Fargo executive who suggested that unemployment benefits are to blame for high unemployment. He didn’t dominate the conversation; he killed with facts.
He also hated political spinmeisters.
Haines achieved a cult following partly for his work on CNBC on 9/11. “This cannot be an accident,” he said early on. It starts at about 4 minutes in here…
Haines was the best rationale for having more curmudgeons and fewer makeup artists in today’s newsrooms.
“He didn’t love France; he loved his country and his family,” a colleague said today.
