Does Sex Sell Business News?

Fox News seems to think that sex sells business news and it was a reoccurring theme on this weekend's Cost of Freedom programming this past weekend. On Forbes on Fox there was a heated discussion about whether office affairs were good or bad for business. Viewers were lured with images of a leggy woman in promos and during the segment and there a was furious (if not serious) debate about the subject.

After that, there was Cashin In, where the subject was an advertising campaign that the Israeli government is doing to attract tourists. Beautiful and in bikinis, Israeli women were wooing potential visitors with attractive photos (that they displayed liberally during the segment). Another argument exploded with individuals fighting over whether it was appropriate for Israel to do such a campaign when it is noted for its religious heritage rather (as stated by one of the panelist) than as a hot spot "to pick up women."

In the end, I found both debates less to do with substantive business issues and more to do with plain old sex appeal. Don't get me wrong, these are important issues (well, at least sexual relations between co-workers), but with the display of photos and the verbal bating before and during the segment, the weighty issues were overwhelmed by fluff. On the other hand, Fox business programming (between 9-11 AM Central on Saturdays) are the highest rated shows for business on cable. Also, I have been guilty of throwing in a photo of a beautiful person now and then on this blog myself (like the photo of one of the Israeli models mentioned in the story above). So the question I posed in the title of the article has an obvious answer. Sex seems to sell everything, even business news.