Looks like the computer-equipped chimpanzees over at NewsHounds.us have discovered the breakfast of champions--what's the other explanation for such drunken ranting and reasoning? Stumbling around looking for a fresh take on NewsHounds's institutional hate-Fox-News culture, contributor Marie-Therese trips over CNBC:
News Hound Editorial - A week ago or so I happened to catch a few minutes of Kudlow and Company on CNBC and was astonished to see a familiar face on the panel - Forbes Magazine Silicon Valley Editor, Quentin Hardy, a regular on FOX News' Forbes on FOX show. Host Larry Kudlow made a big deal about how this was Hardy's "first time" on his show. I remember wondering at the time if FOX was trying to cross-pollinate some of its "financial experts" in an effort to legitimize its planned (but still not executed) launch of a FOX Financial Network. This morning, however, I was brought up short, not by the guests, but by the format used during a segment of Power Lunch.
I've watched CNBC on and off for over two years, so I feel I have a pretty good sense of their style, which tends to be - like The Wall Street Journal, their print partner - very dry, very educated and generally conservative. CNBC features some excellent in-depth reporting on financial markets, trends and issues, in stark contrast to the overblown, politicized FOX financial shows which keep the financial advice to the minimum and couch everything in terms of hyperbole, "come ons" and ridiculous questions designed to elicit a visceral reaction.
Here are some (fictional) samples of FOX teasers:
"George Bush stubs his toe. Will the stock market trip and fall?"
"1200 dead in Katrina aftermath. What are the hidden opportunities for funeral homes?"
"Nuclear meltdown at Three-Mile Island. Does the China Syndrome mean good news for uranium producers?"
Ah, yes. "Fictional samples." Nothing like fake reporting. Jayson, is that you? But wait, there's more:
Power Lunch host Bill Griffeth, ordinarily a calm and serious gentleman, suddenly morphed into a clone of David Asman.
The segment started with a report on yesterday's absolutely abysmal polling numbers for the President.
But it wasn't the information imparted that got my attention. It was the style and structure of the segment.
At the top of the screen appeared the words "BUSH-PROOF ECONOMY?" - a banner straight out of Roger Ailes' FOX News playbook!
Alarmed, I immediately hit the record button on the VCR and, sure enough, four minutes later I had my answer.
CNBC has been FOXified!
Is it possible that Ailes' acquisitive eye has focused on CNBC as a possible new home for the FOX Financial Network?
We always knew the NewsHounds were crazy and desperate. But now we now that they're so much more! In the words of Dean Wormer from "Animal House": "NewsHounds, fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life."
