Via Gawker comes this fantastic rant from CNBC host Dennis Kneale in which he rails against his "cowardly," "dickweed" blogger critics who made fun of him for basically declaring that the recession is over. Kneale is offended that these "mean-spirited bloggers" would be "jeering" at his optimism from the "dark and cozy safety of their mothers' basements," and invites them to come on and hash it out with him. One of them takes him up on the offer and calls into the show (anonymously). Kneale is not without a complete sense of humor though. He acknowledges bloggers pegging him as "Beaker," from the Muppets, is "pretty funny." The whole thing is great, and you can just feel PR advisers everywhere cringing as Kneale picks a fight that he can't possibly win.
I understand that bloggers are too often considered to be to "serious" journalism what dried boogers on the underside of a table are to good housekeeping. Still, even a "dickweed blogger" like myself has boundaries. I, f'rinstance, resent the inclination that we're all a bunch of dateless losers sitting in front of a laptop in a dark, TV-lit room in our parent's basement in our underwear. I have a smokin' hot girlfriend and I (almost) always wear shorts or pants. I will, however, cop to the TV-lit room part of the equation (at least occasionally). Oh, and I do have my my own address...just in case anyone was wondering.
I'll have to own up to never having heard of Dennis Kneale, so I can't speak to his talent or veracity as a financial pundit. For some reason, though, he's managed to attract the ire of numerous bloggers, which leads me to believe that he might just have an issue with the accuracy of his observations. If Kneale was on top of his game, I suspect that most of us would leave him alone, because he simply wouldn't be interesting enough to harrass. Then again, there's something about virtually anyone on CNBC that makes them seem fair game for parody. Uh...Jim Cramer, anyone?? IT'S NOT NEWS...IT'S CNBC.
Hey, if you're going to declare that the recession is over, you'd best be prepared for some pushback. With unemployment nationally at 9.5% and with companies still shedding jobs like competitors on an episode of "The Biggest Loser"...well, it might be a good time for Kneale to get out of the studio and take his blinders off. The well-off in his world may be well-offer, but most of America is still hurting. To declare the recession to be over is great, but I find it difficult not to see wild-eyed optimism as unwarranted and unsupportable.
