Mark Haines. RIP

CNBC's curmudgeonly lawyer and anchor, Mark Haines, passed away Tuesday night. He was 65.

Haines had many professional achievements, but I will always remember his style of pinning down talking heads during interviews. He would pounce on phrases like "stock-picker's market" ("all right, pick some stocks") or "can't predict the future" ("all right, what can you predict?")

This, to me, was not merely verbal insouciance, but good television journalism. Like an actual manager evaluating a research product or service, he was pushing relentlessly to add some value for the viewers.

Among colleagues, Haines was known for his liberal dispensation of nicknames, and for putting an emphasis on helping his colleagues look good on the air. "Hey, when they look good, I look good too."

The New York Stock Exchange paused for a moment of silence Wednesday morning in Haines's memory. Appropriate, that. There are no reports yet from heaven, but one of his colleagues speculates intelligently, "if Mark Haines is interviewing God this morning, he's giving him the devil."

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