CNBC Editor: The People Are Revolting! Santelli plays Mel Brooks playing Louis XVI

[Purveyor]

In the annals of CNBC cluelessness, this morning’s outburst by the channel’s Rick Santelli is up there with the worst.

This is an example of what’s wrong with a certain kind of financial journalism, the kind where people of like backgrounds spend all day staring at tickers and interviewing each other.

The segment couldn’t more clearly illustrate the disconnect between the financial-services sector, certain financial journalists, and, you know, “reality.”

This was CNBC’s worst performance in an entire week—since Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, Dennis Kneale, Roben Farzad & Co. made horses’ rear-ends of themselves trying to squeeze investment tips out of two of the leading thinkers on the global financial crisis, Nouriel Roubini and Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

What sent Santelli, CNBC’s hot-air, oops, “On-Air Editor,” over the edge? The homeowner bailout. Of course, he didn’t get himself into nearly this much of a lather over the trillions of dollars we’ve given to Wall Street welfare cases and the busted banks. Oh no. He’s mad that non-financial-service-professionals, otherwise known as homeowners, or, according to Santelli “losers,” who are up now for help—to the tune of $275 billion, much of which would go to the banks anyway (emphasis mine):

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Look, we have no problem with robust commentary. And the hothead thing is part of Santelli’s schtick. The man has to make a living, we suppose. He’s gone off on bailouts before (he actually walked out on a segment a few months ago after a heated discussion).

He’s also been wrong. The segment he walked out on was in the midst of the mid-September meltdown when he was calling for a delay in a bailout of the crippled financial system, which nearly everyone now agrees kept us from a catastrophic meltdown and depression. But even then, he didn’t question the need for something to be done to bail the financiers out.

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Columbia Journalism Review: http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/cnbc_editor_the_people_are_rev.php

[Pirate Smile]

1. and then there are jackasses like Barnicle celebrating Santelli's spew.

Truly disgusting.