CNBC Host Flips Out When Bloggers Dare to Challenge His Assertion The Recession Is Over, Calls Bloggers

John Carney
BusinessInsider
Jul. 02, 2009

How to become a TV news anchor:

1. Sell your soul
2. Read a teleprompterOn some CNBC show we don't know much about because it airs when decent people are eating dinner with their families and the rest of us are having a drink with friends, Dennis Kneale decided he'd had enough of bloggers comparing him to Beaker from the Muppets and fat ladies in thongs on the beach. It was time to strike back.

The video is below, so you can watch the train-wreck yourself. He personally names DealBreaker and Zerohedge as the blogs that have been unfair to him. Perhaps the weirdest moment comes when he makes the bizarre claim that he has more courage than anonymous bloggers. Three quick points about this:

Bess Levin of DealBreaker isn't anonymous. And while Equity Private, another writer for DealBreaker, is anonymous, she's got enough of a well-established online persona that it's unfair to compare her to a message board troll.
Dennis must understand that the primary reason most of these bloggers are anonymous is that they have day jobs. Unlike Dennis, they don't have the privilege of not being anonymous. Most would probably love to have jobs like Dennis, where he gets paid to give his opinion.
The world is enriched by the variety of voices online. The benefits of having anonymous blogging greatly outweighs the emotional cost to people like Beeker, who has to suffer the ignominy of constantly being compared to Dennis.

There's also the odd part where Dennis cuts off the one blogger who agrees to come on his show. If you are going to allow someone air time to make their case, at least give them a chance. Especially if it is someone not used to the medium, don't use your greater experience to beat them up. It just looks cheap and bullying. And it winds up justifying the fears of those who refused to come on the show.