The Maven: Spotting Corny Trends

The Business Press Maven's lame-o-meter was tripped up in a big way this week. Let me give you the lowlights. Then we'll dust ourselves off, pull up our knee socks and forge on.

The Motley Fool tried to slap Google (GOOG) upside the head this week, but its argument was so flawed that the article amounted to nothing more than a hapless collection of words.

The flawed premise illustrates perfectly what The Business Press Maven always says: An investor can never assume that a business journalist has working knowledge of either basic math or business history. Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, they are fine.

In any case, The Motley Fool brought up the increase in spam content and click fraud, saying that things will never improve through free-market forces because Google has 60% of the market. This means we that consumers are dealing with a monopoly.

You heard that right. They connected the concept of 60% market share with, uh, monopoly.

This earns the boobie prize feared in newsrooms worldwide: the dreaded Business Press Maven "Back of the Hand" award.

Since when was 60% of the market a monopoly? Sixty percent is niiiiice market share, in my book or anyone else's. But a monopoly? Puh-leeze. Standard Oil it ain't.

The Business Press Maven was already reeling from this when, on Wednesday night, the Associated Press and Reuters reported on Lions Gate's (LGF) quarterly earnings. Woe are we. Here are the headlines, and remember, as always: The business media confuses. You break your back trying to decide.

Pick the headline behind Door No. 1, from AP:

Lions Gate Fiscal 2006 Earnings Plunge

Or, 51 minutes later, the six-word strip of wisdom from Reuters:

Lions Gate DVDs boost fourth quarter profit

Rather than take on the convoluted Associated Press story -- doing so wouldn't be sporting for a great hunter of garbled business journalism like The Business Press Maven -- let's just graciously move on. Instead, let's congratulate Lions Gate for reporting a solid quarter and raising next year's numbers. Reuters, if only because the competition is thin, you've earned (or backed into) the coveted Business Press Maven "Nod of Approval."