CNBC's on-air laptops: When Macs aren't really Macs

A MacBook isn't a MacBook when it's a Dell.

(Credit:Dell)

I confess to not watching CNBC too often.

When the channel isn't presenting dour faces promising imminent immolation, it's showing over-excitable bald people telling you which stocks to buy. Well, screaming, actually. There is enough screaming in my life already.

However, this morning, there might be screaming of a different sort at CNBC, because the sleuths at Business Insider have revealed what they say is brand subterfuge. Or, if you like, insider faking.

Indeed, Business Insider insists that the shiny laptops placed before presenters -- which, for all the world, look like Macs -- are mere dolled-up Dells.

The Insiders, you see, managed to get around the desk after a show and discovered that the keyboards of these laptops did not reflect what you'd see on (an) Air.

For the bodies of the machines closely resemble those of Dell's Latitude 2120 Netbooks. Allegedly. And according to photos the site published.

As Business Insider's Jim Edwards explained: "They look like MacBooks because CNBC has disguised them by adding gray lids, along with some CNBC branding where the Apple logo might have been."

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Who could believe that anything related to money and stocks would possibly involve simulation?

Being of kind mind, I would like to give CNBC some latitude here. The channel isn't telling anyone that these are MacBooks. It's merely suggesting a certain sleekness that's associated with Apple. The producers obviously feel that the opinions offered on their shows would be less persuasive if they were seen to be delivered over the front of some $600 machine.

So they gussy up a Dell in order to project the sophisticated air of, well, Adele.

Every stock needs marketing, doesn't it? Yes, even your own.

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