Net Troubles Run Amazon-Deep

So we're making calls to find out what's wrong with the Net today, and all we get back is the same answer: Jeff Matthews'

slam of

Amazon.com

(AMZN) - Get Report

. We get it from so many people that we begin to believe that

Herb Greenberg's

column might have that power.

What a conundrum! You have editors out there who would rather lose their jobs than admit that

TheStreet.com

has that kind of impact, but you also have people who live and breathe this stuff telling us that the Amazon trashing is hammering the whole Net, since Amazon is still the beacon people follow.

Sometimes we ourselves don't even know our power. Last week's Richard Belluzzo

story by

Adam Lashinsky

set off a massive run in

Microsoft

(MSFT) - Get Report

that not even

TheStreet.com's

markets people flagged. Maybe it will be the same with this Amazon call, but I am getting too much feedback from people not in

TheStreet.com's

loop about this.

This is certainly good for subscribers. They benefit while others just hear about this stuff. It's bad for the rest of the media, though, because it will soon become obvious that those guys refuse to report the real news. Oh, great --

CNBC

is now saying that its own partner

Alan Abelson

is causing the weakness...

What a world!

James J. Cramer is manager of a hedge fund and co-founder of TheStreet.com. At time of publication, his fund was long Microsoft. His fund often buys and sells securities that are the subject of his columns, both before and after the columns are published, and the positions that his fund takes may change at any time. Under no circumstances does the information in this column represent a recommendation to buy or sell stocks. Cramer's writings provide insights into the dynamics of money management and are not a solicitation for transactions. While he cannot provide investment advice or recommendations, he invites you to comment on his column at

jjcletters@thestreet.com.