Hooray! At the CNBC lunch table, they all agree that CNBC is the best. What else are they going to say about their employer who is finally getting some hype thanks to the "Democrats are making America like Castro's Cuba" rant? My favorite CNBC personality Becky Quick hypes the Santelli-mania that is rallying hundreds - yes hundreds - of traders who want more freeloading help from the US government. Ms Quick has been a favorite of mine ever since the public backlash against Bush after Katrina. As CNBC showed a video of Bush taking 2 minutes for a photo op and hammering in a few nails, she rushed to his defense and asked how Americans could not support Bush. Couldn't they see that he was there trying to help? Yes, she's consistently been a right wing apologist who is more focused on Botox than what's going on in the real world. Maybe that's why she's so impressed with the Santelli rant.
Then again, there's a lot of echo-chamber going around and around and around on CNBC and sister network MSNBC. Who needs to hear what others really think of a Wall Street apologist when they can simply ask fellow wingnuts? More fair and balanced.
Without providing any substantive response, on February 20, MSNBC twice promoted CNBC on-air editor Rick Santelli's February 19 rant over what Santelli said was the government's "promoting bad behavior" and "subsidiz[ing] the losers' mortgages" through President Obama's proposed foreclosure reduction plan.
When CNBC anchor Trish Regan reported on Santelli's comments during the February 19 broadcast of NBC's Nightly News, she included Moody's Economy.com co-founder Mark Zandi's response that the administration's plan "is a bitter pill to swallow, but it's one we need to swallow, so that the financial system, the economy, don't slide away" and that "you have a choice, either you can help your neighbor and help them so they can stay in their home, or don't help them, and they'll lose their home, and it'll cost you money because you'll be worth less because your home will have just dropped in value." However, when Santelli was interviewed about his comments on the February 20 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe, no one provided or aired any substantative reply to Santelli, either from Zandi or anyone else. Later that morning on MSNBC Live, anchor Tamron Hall replayed and discussed Santelli's comments; again, no substantive response was provided.
