• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, April 8, 2025

During the wild two-day stock market ride last week, when business analysts were frantically trying to make sense of Trump worldwide tariffs announcements, Kelly Evans of CNBC’s The Exchange -- like many other TV hosts -- ran out of polite or easy, thoughtful questioning during interviews.

In an intense day filled with high tension, she asked one marketplace analyst: “So are you buying, selling... screaming?” she asked.

Yes, at that moment the Dow Jones Industrials was down around 3,500 points -- a massive 8% decline over a two-day period.

CNBC was reading the room, with everyone was thinking there was plenty of drama for TV networks hosts who -- although trying to be professional -- were on edge.

But at some conservative-leaning general news cable TV networks such as Fox News Channel, there was plenty of calm. Big-screen markets graphics/charts in red numbers -- showing massive stock market decline -- were nowhere to be found.

Instead, constant messaging was displayed on how President Trump was keeping his campaign promise. That said, some viewers were probably scratching their heads: Was this the way Trump was going to quickly lower the prices of eggs?

As for whether Trump ever talked about U.S. citizens' 401Ks taking a crushing hit in a campaign speech, I may have missed that.

Fox Business, however, had a closer-to-home investor viewpoint. One main headline over the intense two-day period on Fox Business had a photo of Trump, with a comment about the federal government’s effort to push for a TikTok merger: ‘Working very hard’.

You had to move to the smaller headlines on the page, that of apparently meant less in editors' eyes: “Dow drops over 2,000 points as tariff-induced sell-off steepens.” All to say that the more positive Trump Administration publications were trying to find whatever silver lining there could be in this huge, dramatic news story.

Experts says the U.S. stock market has not been rocked this hard since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, the events around 9/11 -- or in 2007 during “The Great Recession” caused by the subprime mortgage crisis which lasted until June 2009 marked by a decline in GDP and rising unemployment. Stocks crumbled by over 40% at its depths.

All seven major stories on Fox Business that followed Trump’s TikTok decision were about tariffs, with the response from countries including China, Trump putting pressure on the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates, and economists' warnings of a now probable recession to come.

At times like this business news is really consumer news -- messaging with shock-and-awe, revealed in high levels of consumer angst and depression.

Perhaps CNBC’s real full original name ( a network originally launched as a joint venture between NBC and Cablevision in 1989) makes more sense these days: Consumer News and Business Channel.

The question is -- where do TV news networks -- specifically those business-focused TV networks -- go from here in the wake of specific Trump Administration's actions that is tearing up markets and possibly the economy?

If not buying or selling, should we see.... more screaming?