Bill Rempel, a.k.a. NO DooDahs! ยป S&P 500 Earnings Ex-What?

I really like reading Bill Rempel. He is a very smart guy with more interest in finding ways to make money rather than expound a personal theory of the current financial condition. In the article linked above, he takes to task those who want to disregard those sectors of the stock market that go against their theory. He opens with this thought:

Bears will be mentioning S&P 500 earnings ex-big oil. Bulls will be mentioning S&P 500 earnings ex-financials. Both are full of shit, some particular ones more so than others.

He argues that if this is the current case you must disregard the hot or cold sector for every era to make proper comparisons. Bill sums it up this way:

Of course, one could argue that, since at any given time there are companies and industries with growing profits and companies and industries with shrinking profits, that the whole endeavor of examining S&P 500 Earnings Ex-What? is pointless and idiotic. I would tend to be among that group.

I think the reader of financial blogs and news needs to be discerning these days. Is the writer trying to help the reader be a better investor, or is the writer trying to generate interest in his opinion to further his own agenda? I believe there is some of both in all of us who write about these topics, but I find many Internet sites seem more interested in generating traffic and income than actually putting out helpful information.