Analyst Goes Goo-Goo for Google

And then there was the day The Business Press Maven had officially seen it all.

We've born sad witness before to how analysts have made deliberately inconsistent statements about prominent companies in order to set themselves up for being right no matter which way circumstances blow. And we've seen the business media, who need analyst sources or they'd be forced to think for themselves, take these analysts at their word.

But I'm not sure we've ever seen the likes of this, at least with this visible a company.

A Citigroup analyst named Mark Mahaney was entirely bullish on Google(GOOG Quote) as recently as a month ago. Five weeks ago, he has a price target of $590. Way, way, back then, thirty-something days ago, he said the company was the market leader in search, the most "dynamic" portion of Internet advertising.

Then, a few days ago, he changed his mind.

In and of itself, changing one's mind is fine -- if the circumstances have made a similarly dramatic change. But that's not the case here. which in and of itself is fine, I guess, if the circumstances change that dramatically....though they haven't. It was the, uh, half-baked way he changed his mind that is most notable, however. And the way the business media, who needs analysts (and we use the term loosely) just plays along.

A few days ago, Mahaney said in a report that this was "almost surely the worst economic environment in our collective lifetimes." He added: "We didn't uncover a single source that thought business trends were going to improve in the foreseeable future," and "Search marketers almost universally expect this Q4 to be the weakest they have ever experienced."