CNBC Lands a Sucker Punch

by StockJockey

Monday, March 31, 2008 - 6:12 pm

When "Ambac Charlie" Gasparino is not dining at Rao's you can find him on TV, knocking people senseless:

CNBC’s Charlie Gasparino doesn’t pull punches. A former amateur pugilist, Gasparino’s outsize on-air persona has gotten him in multiple verbal kerfuffles of late. He’s tangled with guests—notably former New York lieutenant governor Betsy McCaughey Ross—and even sent an uncalled-for haymaker at colleague and Squawk Box contributor Dennis Kneale. CNBC anchor Erin Burnett has invoked his name as a noun. "Pulling a Gasparino" is to shout down an opponent. B&C

Charlie's book on the implosion of Bear Stearns will keep him busy for the next year, although he will likely be on daily to push welterweight Dennis Kneale around. Apparently bullying people is part of CNBC's business model, and they backed Fortune magazine into the corner, demanding a puff piece, or else :

How to get Fortune magazine to pen a puff piece on you? Complain that they did the same for the competition. The Time Inc. business title is said to be working on a softball story on CNBC, hitting in the April 14 issue. This comes after Fortune published, in October, a blowjobby piece on the just-launching Fox Business Network, penned by then-staffer Tim Arango. Jossip

When that article hit, Kevin Goldman (then the VP of CNBC publicity and a former Wall Street Journal reporter) fired off an angry three-page letter to Fortune’s editors, we’re told, complaining about the rival network receiving such gratuitous coverage just out of the gate and demanding “better treatment” for CNBC.

The puff piece is out, and it certainly treats CNBC with kid gloves:

.....at CNBC, broadcast veteran Mark Hoffman has added edge and emotion to a network that was heavily criticized in the run-up to the tech bust for its rah-rah business take on the news. Hoffman was in fact the news director there before leaving to run a local NBC station. When he returned as president in 2005, ratings had hit their lowest level since the channel launched in 1989, and primetime was given over to reruns of the Conan O’Brien Show, as well as fare like tennis pro John McEnroe’s talk show, which sometimes earned a Nielsen rating of 0.0.

Hoffman, who came up with a four-part mantra for the channel - fast, accurate, actionable, unbiased - began his CNBC tenure wandering the newsroom floor, checking in with reporters directly. “Mark is remarkable because he says, ‘Tell me what you need.’ And we get it,” says Jim Cramer of Mad Money.

On CNBC, actionable often means fade. At least to many traders.

Regardless, it appears that Fortune Magazine is the tomato can of journalism. Beat ‘em up and you will get your way.

What would Henry Luce, the legendary founder of Time, Inc say about Fortune caving in to CNBC’s demands?

No Mas, perhaps.

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