Is CNBC now embarrassed by Rick Santelli?
March 03, 2009 11:38 am ET by Eric Boehlert
The New York Times today notes that Santelli's appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart was yanked, with a CNBC flak telling the Times, "It was time to move on to the next big story.”
As I suggested in my column this week, real damage was done to the cabler by Santelli's on-air rant, his prancing around right-wing radio where he concocted stories, and by CNBC's decision to relentlessly hype Santelli's performance. That a biz reporter would uncork such a partisan outburst on air, crossing all normal bounds of journalism, and then be celebrated, revealed a real deficiency in leadership at CNBC.
It's nice to see execs there have belatedly caught on to the error of their ways.
UPDATE: Santelli denies the recent Playboy allegation, suggesting his rant was not spontaneous and that he was in cahoots with anti-Obama biz forces.
Makes sense because:
1. This was coordinated with right-wing operatives trying to arrange supposed "tea parties" ralling against taxes for wealthy. That worked splendidly, didn't it?
2. Traders, hedge fund managers and wall street types are not POPULISTS and are not average AMERICAN wage earners!
The gig is up!