Rule One: Don’t Lie.

Revered financial anchor, Mark Haines, passed away this week at the very young age of 65.  He was the cornerstone of CNBC’s financial news programming from the very beginning: the founding anchor of “Squawk Box” and then, “Squawk on the Street”.

For over twenty years of very early mornings, I watched or listened to his direct, intellectually honest, penetrating, but very fair questioning of CEOs and financial pundits.  I enjoyed his wit and the way he challenged his guests as a sort of proxy for the viewers.  I especially appreciated his impatience with blowhards and posers.  He was the first to poke holes in overly optimistic “hockey stick” forecasts and quick to point out “bubbles”.  His approach to his guests was refreshing and sometimes even a bit startling, but it always returned the highest value.

A few of the current crop of CNBC anchors (such as Joe Kernen and David Faber) cut their teeth under Haines and it shows.  They share the same fearlessness that can only be attributed to their time served with Haines.  Fearlessness makes for great journalism: Less hype.  More substance.  That was especially true on 9/11.   Mark Haines’ reporting on that day is the stuff of legends.  I tuned in that morning and was simultaneously stunned by the events and calmed by Haines’ on-air analysis.

Please take a moment out of your day to read the Wall Street Journal article, “A Tough but Jovial Skeptic” for some great insight into the man.  My personal favorite:

“Rule one is don’t lie,” Mr. Haines said in a 2001 interview with Investor Relations Business magazine. “If you do, I’ll kill you.”

CNBC has an excellent tribute page: In Memoriam: Mark Haines.  As of this writing there are already many hundreds of pages of user comments on the “CNBC Viewers Remember…” page.  Some of them are serious, some funny, some quite touching.  It is clear that Mark Haines had a big effect on many people, including Jim Cramer, who sums it up for many of us:

“We all know Mark as being the toughest guy around on the guests,” Cramer said. “He was the standard.

“He was our Huntley, Brinkley, Cronkite and Mike Wallace all in one. Never took himself too seriously, but took our viewers’ money incredibly seriously and never let anyone get away with anything. He used to say to me, ‘NO FREE PASSES.’

“What you didn’t know is that off camera he was the first to ask you about your kids. We talked kids until the moment he said, ‘Live from the financial capital of the world.’

He’s our guy.”