Be a TV Critic

Editor's note: As a special bonus to TheStreet.com readers, we will be running an updated version of Jim Cramer's "Twenty-Five Rules of Investing," from his latest book, Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World. Here's Rule 21.

Do you know how financial television really works?

I'll tell you. At times, it can just be a gigantic booking machine. That's right, people are scrambling to get money managers on who can talk, almost regardless of how good they are. And lots of times, executives say whatever they want on air, knowing that they can get away with it.

I accept this as a given. I accept that what I hear on television is probably right, but no more than that. That's the world in which we live. That's the reason I follow this tenet: ...