This morning Joe Kernen, co-anchor of CNBC’s “Squawk Box” interviewed Yahoo! Finance general manager Peggy White about a huge deal that has been struck with SeekingAlpha to provide content on one of the web’s leading finance portals. For those of you that don’t know SeekingAlpha, I suggest you click on the link, bookmark it in your favorites list and then check it out as frequently as you can. And if it seems like I am sucking up here, I am not. I have no relationship with Yahoo or SeekingAlpha. In my opinion, SeekingAlpha is the premier aggregator or stock / finance blogs and has been a significant factor in the credibility that many bloggers now enjoy. Yahoo could not have picked a better partner and I am confident investors will benefit from the association.

It was a shock then that I heard Joe’s take on stock blogs and the tone of his questions and commentary during the interview. Ms. White endured comments from Joe and Charlie Gasparino that equated stock bloggers to “minefields”, the “wild west” and some of the absurd comments that populate the Yahoo Finance Message Board. I kept waiting for a disclaimer that said CNBC didn’t think this way about all stock bloggers but unless I missed it, that never happened. There were lectures about the need for due diligence and fact-checking when writing stories and on that we agree. However, believe it or not, some of us do a lot of research, think things through, and go through multiple edits before publishing. I also agree that there are a lot of crappy stock blogs that fit the description that CNBC painted all of us with. That broadbrushed generality is a very untrue and very unfair guilt by association. I am sure it was an editorial oversight on their part. After all, CNBC has its own blog and I doubt they were indicting themselves. And I really doubt they wanted to cast aspersions on some of their regular guests like Barry Ritholtz who happen to write blogs at the same time as providing tremendously insightful commentary over their network. Comparing bloggers to “scam” artists who are apparently bent on “frontrunning” is a sweeping assumption that is way off target.

I don’t agree with all of the commentary that appears on CNBC, but I don’t question their intentions. Some bloggers love to take shots at the reporters, anchors and guests and if this was an attempt at retribution, it was from a bully pulpit. I did “check the facts” and according to their own media info “CNBC is the recognized global leader in business news, providing real-time financial market coverage and business information to more than 200 million homes worldwide, including more than 88 million households in the United States and Canada.” That’s a huge reach and it is a shame that stock bloggers were so mischaracterized to such a huge audience. It was disappointing but I have faith that viewers were able to make up their own mind.

It’s tough to create a meaningful audience with any business endeavor and blogging is no exception. As Joe Kernen pointed out, almost anyone can write a blog and there are very few barriers to entry or any required credentials. That’s all true and it is tough to make it to his level within a major financial outlet like CNBC or in similar levels at print publications like the Wall Street Journal or whatever equivalent mainstream outlet you might want to discuss. However, not everyone in major media checks their facts or avoids wrong or salacious comments. In fact, media and political blogs were responsible for uncovering Dan Rather’s lack of fact checking. At the highest level, mistakes are possible.

Making it onto CNBC is an honor and legitimizes many guests including professors, economists, analysts, politicians, etc., and yet, the appearance does not guarantee accuracy of their facts. Some CNBC contributors are wrong and others make mistakes, it’s unfortunate but it happens. SeekingAlpha does a great service to scrutinize their contributors’ content and filter out as much of the bad stuff as possible. Is SA perfect? Nope - and neither am I and in the case of CNBC’s comments about stock bloggers, neither are they.