Free Republic

Three years ago, Deep Capture reporter and Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne gave a famous conference call that he titled, “The Miscreant’s Ball.” His thesis was simple: Some short-selling hedge funds collude to destroy public companies by spreading misinformation, orchestrating government witch hunts, filing bogus class-action lawsuits, and, most egregiously, selling billions of dollars worth of phantom stock. In the months that followed “The Miscreants Ball” presentation, a clique of journalists with close ties to short-selling hedge funds and CNBC’s Jim Cramer (himself a former hedge fund manager), set out to sully the reputations of Patrick and everyone else who sought...

Federal officials aren’t supposed to cause bank runs. In fact, much of the New Deal bank regulatory apparatus was set up for the purpose of eliminating such panics. When FDR was hit with a massive set of bank runs shortly after taking office, he gave an address in order to calm terrified depositors, assuring them that the banks would reopen shortly, and that everything would be fine. But Chuck Schumer is no FDR. He doesn’t stop bank runs; he starts them. Or, at least, has started one. The collapse of Indymac bank, the second largest bank failure in American history,...

Although the collapse of Bear Stearns happened back in March, the debate still rages as to what led to the failure of the 85-year old investment bank that had survived years of previous turmoil, including the Great Depression. After JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon appeared on PBS's "The Charlie Rose Show" July 7 and commented on an August 2008 Vanity Fair article alleging that CNBC reporting could have been part of Bear Stearns' downfall, the cable channel's on-air editor Charlie Gasparino criticized what was claimed in the article and Dimon's reaction on CNBC's July 8 "Power Lunch." "Well, you...

Even financial journalists have found a way to promote a liberal social agenda, as CNBC’s "Squawk on the Street" showed in a June 16 segment praising the California Supreme Court for legalizing same-sex marriage. "This time around, one study expects over 100,000 gay couples will tie the knot, providing a boost to California’s ailing economy hit hard by the real estate foreclosure meltdown," CNBC Silicon Valley Bureau Chief Jim Goldman said. Goldman cited data from the pro-gay Williams Institute, a division of the University of California Los Angeles School of Law. According to its Web site, the Williams Institute "advances...

When a high-ranking U.S. senator sounds more like Karl Marx than Adam Smith over the issue of energy prices, it must be an election year. Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, appeared on CNBC’s June 10 “Squawk Box” pushing government control of corporate profits. Dodd said he considered a company to be “doing very, very well” with profits above $8 or $10 per barrel of oil. He said he advocated a windfall profits tax, where Congress would determine what amount of profit is fair and what isn’t. Co-host Joe Kernan called the Connecticut senator on...

In early trading on June 6, the price of a barrel of oil rose $6 and was holding steady at near-record highs in excess of $133. According to CNBC contributor John Kilduff, a high-ranking Israeli official caused the spike when he commented on tensions between Israel and Iran. “[W]hat’s really lit up this market big time here is, which hasn’t been really mentioned. I haven’t heard too much and I’m surprised at, is deputy minister in Israel said this morning that an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities is quote, ‘unavoidable,’” said Kilduff on CNBC's “Squawk on the Street” June 6....

The current food shortage is going to get worse before it gets better – at least that’s the way the founder of CNN sees it. Ted Turner was interviewed by CNBC’s Bob Pisani on the April 25 “Closing Bell.” He addressed the recent food shortages causing rationing and riots all over the globe and said it’s just a sign of things to come. “There are a lot of different problems being caused by an ever-increasing number of people in a finite-sized world,” Turner said. “The resources of the planet just can’t keep up with the demand and I’m afraid this...

In an interview in conjunction with his big economic speech in New York, Senator Obama tells CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo he favors increasing the capital-gains tax rate Bartiromo reported: “Right now, as you know, the cap gains tax is at 15 percent. He has yet to give us a specific number. How high he wants that number to go? He has said, and he told me today, that he won't go above 28 percent. So we are talking about the possibility of a doubling in the capital gains tax. He was averaging at about 25 percent.” Here is her exchange with...

After it was announced March 16 that J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) was purchasing Bear Stearns Cos. (NYSE:BSC) for $2 a share, the stock plummeted over 80 percent at the open of trading on March 17. But, on March 11, Cramer told an e-mailer not to sell the beleaguered investment bank’s stock on his show’s Web site: “Dear Jim: Should I be worried about Bear Stearns in terms of liquidity and get my money out of there? --Peter Cramer says: “No! No! No! Bear Stearns is not in trouble. If anything, they’re more likely to be taken over. Don’t...

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke should resign and the Fed should be abolished as a way to boost the falling dollar and speed up the recovery of the U.S. economy, investor Jim Rogers, CEO of Rogers Holdings, told CNBC Europe Wednesday. Asked what he would do if he were in Bernanke's shoes, Rogers, who slammed the Fed for pouring liquidity in the system and accepting mortgage-backed securities as guarantees, said: "I would abolish the Federal Reserve and I would resign." If this happened, "we don't have anybody printing money, we don't have inflation in the land, we don't have a...

"The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer," a one-hour special anchored by CNBC's Dylan Ratigan live from Wall Street, examines the effect Spitzer had on Wall Street, among other topics. It features CNBC anchors and reporters Charlie Gasparino (who has covered Spitzer and Wall Street for years), Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, Scott Cohn, Melissa Lee, Hampton Pearson, among others. The special will feature guests and discussions.

CNBC host hokes up over friend Elliot Spitzer's downfall... video

McGaughey verbally attacked by on CNBC guest. CNBC hosts offers apology to TV audience and McCaughey several time!

Prior to my last appearance on CNBC in October 2007, I had made more than 50 appearances on the network over the prior two years. In those segments, I repeatedly exposed the superficiality of our prosperity, described the American economy as a “house of cards”, pointed out that borrowing and spending were a ticking time bomb rather than a viable plan for long term economic health, and explained how investors could prepare for the tough times ahead. At the time, those forecasts were met with ridicule and led to my being nicknamed “Dr. Doom”. Now that these predictions have come...

Cramer started Friday's show with his "Game Plan", but this segment focused on a Game Plan for the Fed and government instead of the stock market. Cramer doesn't like the stimulus packages being discussed in the White House and Congress, so he offered his own plan. He says that the reason stocks are dropping is that there is a fear that bond insurers will go out of business in the next few days or weeks because they are out of cash. They have $500 billion in potential claims, and they don't have enough money to pay out the claims. If...

CNBC's Erin Burnett knows what she likes in a man, though it's not clear she actually likes men as anything more than people who can buy her stuff. She wrote a piece for Men's Health magazine entitled "8 Ways to Impress Me." Her "8 Ways" aren't impressive, they're pretty sad. They pretty much boil down to "give me stuff and stay away." It's one thing to think this way, there are no doubt many people out there who do, it's quite another to tell the world. Here's one example:

How many people are watching the new Fox Business Network? About 6,300, on average, on any given weekday, according to early estimates compiled by Nielsen Media Research. By contrast, Fox Business’s chief competitor, CNBC, attracted about 283,000 viewers each weekday from Oct. 15 through Dec. 14, the first two months that Fox Business was on the air, according to Nielsen’s calculations. While Nielsen, at the network’s request, has measured the viewership of Fox Business since its premiere, Nielsen is not permitted to release or even confirm those figures publicly. That is because they are so low as to fall below...

A video of the apology at the link.

It looks like Monkey-gate may be over. Earlier this week, Erin Burnett raised some eyebrows as she flippantly referred to President Bush as a "monkey" during Monday's broadcast of Morning Joe. The video on YouTube has over 60,000 views. Today, on Hardball, she apologized to President Bush. "Earlier this week I was on MSNBC, on Morning Joe, and I made a bad attempt at humor...I said something stupid, I just want to make sure I apologize if I offended anyone. I do have the upmost respect for the President, I hope he has a great weekend, and Chris, I hope...

CNBC's Erin Burnett calls Bush a "monkey" - twice. Hilarity ensues Video

Thursday, November 15, 2007 What Fred Said [Larry Kudlow] I just sat down with presidential candidate Fred Thompson, for an interview that will air tonight on Kudlow & Company. The former Tennessee senator was in good form. He attacked Warren Buffet’s tax-hike proposal on the rich as totally wrong, and Buffett himself as nothing more than a mouthpiece for the Democratic party. He agreed with Dick Armey that the GOP will lose if it departs from the first principles of limited government and lower tax rates. He called the farm bill “disgraceful” and would veto it if he were president....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URgXOJm1P6w

CNBC is offering a television show about greed and calling it AMERICAN Greed. Get the message?

Fox Challenges CNBC With New Biz Channel Oct 15, 9:15 AM (ET) By JEREMY HERRON NEW YORK (AP) - Rupert Murdoch has entered a dark horse in high-stakes races before, and won. On Monday, the News Corp. (NWS) (NWS) media titan trots out the Fox Business Network. Two years in the making, the channel will challenge General Electric Co. (GE) (GE)'s highly profitable CNBC network as it seeks to redefine business news for average Americans faced with increasingly complex decisions about their financial futures. Murdoch already has knocked CNN off the cable news throne with Fox News Channel. Can he...

The Anti-Defamation League strongly condemns Ann Coulter for her anti-Semitic comment that Christians "want Jews to be perfected" in an interview with Donny Deutsch on CNBC's "The Big Idea." During her October 8 appearance, Coulter suggested that Jews should convert, adding that, "we just want Jews to be perfected, as they say. … That's what Christianity is." Ann Coulter may be a political pundit but she clearly knows very little about religious theology and interfaith issues...

NEW YORK Appearing on Donny Deutsch's CNBC show, "The Big Idea," on Monday night, columnist/author Ann Coulter suggested that the U.S. would be a better place if there weren't any Jewish people and that they needed to "perfect" themselves into -- Christians. It led Deutsch to suggest that surely she couldn't mean that, and when she insisted she did, he said this sounded "anti-Semitic." Asked by Deutsch whether she wanted to be like "the head of Iran" and "wipe Israel off the Earth," Coulter stated: "No, we just want Jews to be perfected, as they say. ... That's what Christianity...

First impressions are supposed to be 90 percent of politics. If that's the case, Fred Thompson should have a decent shot at the Republican presidential nomination. The impression he created in Tuesday's Republican debate in Detroit wasn't that of a dominant figure or a replica of Ronald Reagan. But he came across as likable, knowledgeable on issues but not wonky, and unexcitable. So Thompson passed the test of whether he could run with the big boys - Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, and John McCain - in the Republican race. That was the only big thing that happened in the debate....

Fred Thompson took the stage in Michigan this afternoon in his first presidential debate. Thompson entered the race just over a month ago, announcing his candidacy on late night tv -- in an effort to upstage his opponents sparring that evening in another debate. Some political observers called this the most important performance of Thompson's life. Over the past three weeks, support for Thompson has slipped in the polls, while rivals Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney noticed steady increases. The moderators started the debate, " Senator Thompson this is your first debate, and we kick it off with you." Answering...

Republican Presidential Candidate Debate #8 – Dearborn, Michigan 10/09/07 - Official Discussion Thread CNBC/MSNBC/The Wall Street Journal are jointly sponsoring the first Republican Presidential debate of the 2008 campaign focusing on economic issues. It will be held on October 9 in Dearborn, Michigan at the University of Michigan-Dearborn at the Ford Community and Performing Arts Center. Broadcast is live on CNBC at 4 PM ET (1 PM PT) and re-broadcast on MSNBC at 9 PM ET (6 PM PT). CNBC's Maria Bartiromo and MSNBC's Chris Matthews will host the debate. Live streaming on CNBC.com Candidates participating: Sam Brownback Rudy Giuliani...

During a long and colorful career, Roger Ailes has dug ditches, advised Richard Nixon on his 1968 presidential campaign, produced off-Broadway shows -- and started cable networks, notably Fox News Channel. *snip* Mr. Ailes, 67 years old, runs his TV empire with combativeness and guile, and is secretive about his plans for the business channel. *snip* It took Fox News four years to surpass CNN's ratings, and Fox Business is starting at a similar disadvantage. Now, Mr. Ailes is taking on General Electric Co.'s CNBC, a network that for now, will reach three times as many homes as the start-up...

If all you did was read or listen to the news headlines today you would have to conclude that Alan Greenspan must have just taken a job with moveon.org There is much more to the story about Alan Greenspan’s position on President Bush and the war in Iraq. In fact, he supported the move to take out Hussein and said he would vote GOP today. There is much more to his comments than what the media asserts in the headlines but how many people will take the time to actually watch a long interview with the former Federal Reserve Chairman...

We wrote here about the television commercials that Freedom's Watch has produced, featuring veterans and their families, that urge Congress and the public to continue supporting the Iraq war. The commercials are well done, and convey the simple message that the Iraq war is important and winnable, and that we should allow our troops to see the mission through. The ads are appearing in the context of a blizzard of anti-war ads by left-wing groups, intended to pressure Senators and Congressmen into pulling the plug on the Iraq effort. Freedom's Watch has placed its ads on Fox and CNN, but...

Jim Cramer today angrily called on Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to lower interest rates, saying he "has no idea how bad it is out there" in the nation's credit markets. In his "Stop Trading" segment on Street Signs today, Cramer said the nation's central bank is "asleep" and should immediately "relieve the pressure" on financial firms and the nation's home owners who are facing big increases in their mortgage payments as 'teaser' rates expire. Many thousands will "lose their homes," he warned. "This is not the time to be complacent." About an hour later, he made a return appearance...

Shrillery is on CNBC right now. Cable TV, Satellite or audio on XM Satellite Radio XM127

<p>July 27, 2007 -- CNBC might not be big enough for both the Money Honey, Maria Bartiromo, and the Street Sweetie, Erin Burnett.</p> <p>Insiders say Bartiromo is in an uproar over her ravishing rival Burnett, who's begun to upstage her at the business news channel.</p>

RUSH: As you might remember, if you were here yesterday, great economic news out there. I reported this great economic news, the stock market crossing 14,000 for the first time, nearly doubling the Dow Jones Industrial Average in five or six years. And I said, "You won't see this in the Drive-By Media." I was wrong. There was a report yesterday morning on the Today show from a CNBC reporter. Her name is the Street Sweetie, and her name is Erin Burnett, and she did a report with Meredith Vieira on the Today show that was excellent. So I played...

RUSH: I think this needs to be noted for historical purposes. On October 7th of 2002, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, having been battered by the Clinton-Gore dot-com crash and the aftermath of 9/11 damage and fear and pessimism, October 7th on 2002, the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit 7,181. That's less than 7200, for those of you in Rio Linda. Today, less than five years from October 7th of 2002, the Dow all but doubled. It did cross 14,000 today. It got back just under 14,000, but it crossed 14,000 today, a humongously huge story that is not being...

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--FOX Business Network (FBN) will launch on October 15, 2007, announced Neil Cavuto, FOX News Senior Vice President and Managing Editor of Business News. FBN currently has 30 million subscribers under contract after securing distribution agreements with major cable operators in top markets around the country, including the world's financial capital -- New York -- where it will be seen on expanded basic cable. Headquartered in News Corporation's street level studios in midtown Manhattan, FBN has also established bureaus in such key markets as Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco (Silicon Valley), Washington, D.C. and London. In making the...

In what will surely be one of the largest ever, if not the largest, in-kind contributions to a presidential campaign if Al Gore decides to run, NBC Universal announced late last week that its networks will devote an incredible 75 hours of time on Saturday, July 7 to showing Gore's “Live Earth: The Concerts for a Climate in Crisis.” In addition to the entirety of NBC's prime time that night hosted by Ann Curry of NBC News, CNBC will carry seven hours of coverage from 7pm to 2am EDT; Bravo will show the concerts around the world for 18 hours...

Producer of a MSM morning news show? Got a few minutes to fill at the end of your first half-hour? Why not resort to a tried-and-true winner: a bit of good old class warfare? That was the "Today" formula this morning. Matt Lauer introduced the segment, enviously entitled "Share the Wealth?: The Rich Get Richer," fanning the flames of envy and resentment with this opener: TODAY CO-HOST MATT LAUER: Do you feel like you're working harder and harder nowadays just to stay financially afloat while fat cats get richer and richer? It's not just a feeling, and you're not...

Most people are probably not familiar with Joe Kernen, a morning anchor for the financial network CNBC. On Tuesday, he invited singer Sheryl Crow and “An Inconvenient Truth” schlockumentary producer Laurie David on to discuss their “Stop Global Warming College Tour.” As Kernen tried to present the skeptics’ side of this debate, the ladies clearly got uncomfortable and, to say the least, a bit defensive with their interviewer. For instance, when Kernen referenced the British documentary “The Great Global Warming Swindle,” and presented evidence from it refuting anthropogenic global warming theories, David astoundingly responded : Well, I haven’t seen it,...

Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani was interviewed by CNBC's Larry Kudlow today. He told Kudlow that tax cuts are keeping the U.S. economy strong, and he urged Congress to refrain from trying to fix the subprime mortgage industry's ongoing woes. "(The government) needs to make it clear that we're going to extend the tax cuts, that it's not just a temporary thing, so people can look forward to long-term planning," he said. "The government needs to reign in spending. We haven't done that in a while in a concerted way and it seems to me that is how the federal...

NEW YORK -- Is it or isn't it? The timing of the launch of the Fox Business Channel has been a favorite parlor game of the media industry for years, ever since News Corp. chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch told analysts that he wanted to challenge CNBC for the small but lucrative business-news audience. Just when has been the subject of much debate, with a national newspaper claiming more than a year ago that a launch was imminent (it wasn't), and with Fox News executives not really showing their hand even if Murdoch and News Corp. president and COO Peter...

CNBC yesterday moved to defend its star anchor Maria Bartiromo, amid increasing questions about her relationship with a former top Citigroup executive. Earlier this week, the financial-services conglomerate ousted Todd Thomson, chief of its wealth-management unit, after Mr. Thomson's spending and friendship with Ms. Bartiromo angered Citigroup Chairman and Chief Executive Charles Prince. His concerns related to judgment issues, including improper use of the corporate jet -- one case involving a trip from Asia with Ms. Bartiromo -- and a decision to spend $5 million on a Sundance Channel program in which she would appear, according to a person familiar...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The friendship between television news anchor Maria Bartiromo and former Citigroup executive Todd Thomson raises questions about ethical boundaries between reporters and their sources, experts said. Thomson found himself out of a job recently after spending $5 million of Citigroup's money to sponsor a show hosted in part by CNBC news anchor Bartiromo, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. The report said Citigroup executives were also irked by Thomson's flying Bartiromo, called "the Money Honey" by tabloid newspapers, to New York from Beijing, China in a Citigroup corporate jet. A spokesman for financial news network...

Wall Street Journal Reporters Stop CNBC Appearances in Labor Dispute NEW YORK (AP) -- A union representing reporters at The Wall Street Journal said Wednesday its members would stop making unpaid appearances on CNBC to protest the position of the Journal's parent company, Dow Jones & Co., in contract talks. The sudden escalation of tensions occurred after only the second meeting between Dow Jones and the Independent Association of Publishers' Employees. Dow Jones has had difficult relations with the union in the past. E.S. Browning, the chairman of the union's bargaining committee and a financial markets reporter, said the union...

In the last month's run-up to the midterm elections, stocks have been climbing while Republican polls have been falling. Does this mean the markets favor gridlock in Washington, after six years of Republican rule? It's an odd paradigm. I put this question to Vice President Dick Cheney in Washington this week, during a special interview that aired on CNBC's "Kudlow & Co." His answer was no. He disagrees with the market. The veep strongly believes a Democratic takeover of Congress will spell trouble for both the current low-tax environment and the economy overall. A rising stock market and sagging GOP...

As I normally do while watching/trading stocks, I have CNBC on in the background. It's just amazing how they are trying to beat down the stock market (even at their own expense) over these last few days prior to the election. Retail sales figures are down some (some are even up a little). Guests are talking down the economy. Dooooom, pessimism and potential disaster....lol. Every single talking head on there is an obvious leftist nutcase (if there's one who isn't, he/she is in hiding). No doubt they've got their orders from the big dogs.

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- CNBC is facing scary times. As usual. But this time, forget the standard teeth-gnashing over the General Electric (GE, Trade) unit's challenge to build ratings. Disregard, too, its woeful primetime programs ("You can't be serious!"). And cut CNBC some slack for what might as well pass for a blank screen on the weekends. (That said, I'd like to believe that the business channel could draw a bigger audience on Saturdays and Sundays if it started presenting the Yule Log instead of those annoying infomercials.) Today, CNBC's worries are more serious than ever before. NBC Universal, of...

Excerpts - NBC Universal is slashing its news budget and abandoning high-cost dramas in the 8 p.m. hour, paring expenses in traditional television as viewers and advertisers flock to new kinds of media. ~ snip ~ Operations for the cable-news channel MSNBC in Secaucus, N.J., will be shuttered and moved to Rockefeller Center in Manhattan and another facility in New Jersey. ~ snip ~