Dumb & Dumber:CNNMoney.com Promotes Two Very Different Lists for "Dumbest Moments in Business"

Elana Centor — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 09:19:32 -0600

In the spirit of you can't make this stuff up, CNNMoney.com apparently has two completely different lists of the 101 Dumbest Moments in Business during 2007.

There's Fortune Magazine's 101 List which is housed on CNNMoney.com. It was just released this month.

But when you Google "Dumbest Business Moments for 2007", the first thing that pops up is not The Fortune Magazine list but rather a list created by Business 2.0 for the 2006 Dumbest Moments in Business. Like the Fortune list, this one is also housed on CNNMoney.com.

So what's up with the dueling dumb lists?

Not sure when this list was originally released but it is that link for Wal-Mart's Dumbest Moments of 2007 on the bottom of the page (highlighted in the photo using my advanced tools on Snagit) that could make one think that CNNMoney.com was toying with the SEO Goddesses at Google tauntingly saying, " Catch us if you can!"

On the other hand, it could just be CNNMoney.com's idea of a dumb joke.

Better yet, perhaps the detour is a way for the folks who created the original list at Business 2.0 to pay their respects to their now deceased magazine. See, in October, Business 2.0 published its last issue .Many of the folks who worked there were absorbed at Fortune which now "owns" the snarky 101 Dumbest Moments List.

Or, could it just be a dumb mistake? You need to be the judge, but I would love to hear you opine on the issue.

Regardless of how the two lists occurred, bloggers love the 101 dumbest moments.

Vero, who blogs at that canadian girl highlights her favorites from the list and then offers up her own perspective.

1. Twitter claiming upgrades every time it went down.
2. Facebook Beacon launches without asking users to opt in first.
3. Apple plays hard balls over iPhone in the UK, gets fewer sales
4. A few idiots rob the blogosphere from Kathy Sierra’s writing and insight.

The folks at BloggingStocks ran their own dumbest moments in business poll.

The polling is now closed.

In September,long before Fortune released its 101 list, Linda Marie at Help Desk Notes created her Top 5 IT Related Big Business Blunders. She blogs that she was inspired to create her list from CNN Money's 101 Dumbest Moments in History.

Now according to her blog, the list that inspired her was released in September 2007. So its not surprising that Linda may have thought that the list covered events in 2007. Here is her number one IT blunder.

McDonalds (NYSE: MCD) takes the number one spot in the IT blunders, (but #3 in Dumbest Moments in Business.) They gave away 10,000 Mickey D’s branded MP3 players that were preloaded with songs. In some cases they had a bonus installation of QQPass Trojan viruses that copied User IDs, Passwords, and other data that was then passed along to hackers. Nice! See Symantec's Weblog for more:

Would You Like a Virus with That?

Just one small detail. That McDonalds moment occurred in 2006. Linda also included the sleeping Comcast repair man and the faulty Sony computer batteries-- all events from 2006. The confusion of course is how CNNMoney.com is promoting that list of 2006 mistakes as 2007 mistakes.

Linda wasn't the only one who was confused by CNNMoney.com's duplicity.

In October Business & Finance Top News referred to the out-of-date Dumb List and
Business in Action also promoted the list as a 2007 initiative.
As recent as last week, William T. Lasley, from About.com linked folks to the 2006 dumb list instead of the 2007 list.

Have your own opinion about the Dumbest Moments in Business in 2007? Fortune has a very nifty interactive poll that allows you to create your own top 10 and then compare with the other poll takers. Very fun.

This being my last business post for 2007, it impossible to resist the urge to look ahead to 2008. The characters in the 1994 movie Dumb and Dumber best capture my anticipation for business moments in 2008.

As Harry told Lloyd (after Lloyd trades the van in for a moped) :

Just when I thought you couldn't get any dumber, you go and do something like this...and totally redeem yourself!

Elana blogs about business culture at FunnyBusiness

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Dumb & Dumber:CNNMoney.com Promotes Two Very Different Lists for "Dumbest Moments in Business"