It is highly frowned upon by the left, and the media is predominantly leftist, so when they report on stock buy backs it is almost always in an unfavorable light since the left is anti-capitalistic.

I'm agnostic with regards to buy backs--I don't know if they are necessarily good or bad, but I disagree with the government trying to control things. This is the company's money so they can do with it what they will. The left says that this is unfair since they're given tax breaks and loans and such. I'm more than happy with the government not picking winners and losers by not providing the companies with these sources of cash.