Buffett bashers miss the mark

Warren Buffett, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA; BRKB), has taken a fair amount of heat in the media and in the blogosphere over the past week.  The backstory is that he was compelled to testify before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) which is a government commission with a mandate to examine the causes of financial panic.
Warren Buffett testified before the commission along with Raymond McDaniel, the CEO of Moody’s (MCO).  Other than the fact that Berkshire owns a 13% stake in Moody’s, I’m not sure why Buffett was forced to appear with the Moody’s CEO, but he was.
Moody’s and the credit rating fiasco
I think it was unfortunate for Buffett to be paired with a guy trying to defend the ratings agency fiasco because, in my view, rating agencies such as Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s bear a lot of blame for enabling the craziness that went on in the mortgage-backed securities business and on Wall Street.  Grilling the company’s CEO seems fine to me.  Having to appear alongside the Moody’s CEO may have led people to think Buffett was defending the company’s action, even though he was not.  How do I know that Buffett did not defend Moody’s?
I actually listened to Buffett’s testimony
As I could not find a transcript of his testimony, I paid the price of actually listening to the testimony from start to finish.  It was long.  How long you say?  Too long.  If you want to listen also, here is the link.
As I was listening, my two sons wandered in from time to time to ask what the purpose of this video was and they occasionally offered funny remarks about a particular panel member who was being — no doubt unintentionally — amusing.

http://blogs.marketwatch.com/fundmastery/2010/06/05/buffett-bashers-miss-the-mark/