It was just a matter of time.
The goons at Comedy Central finally got the opportunity to sharpen their knives and cut into CNBC Chicago Mercantile Exchange floor reporter Rick Santelli for his Feb. 19 anti-federal government housing bailout eruption. On the March 4 “Daily Show,” Santelli was scheduled to appear, but he canceled.
“Actually, our guest tonight, this is very interesting, was supposed this guy,” Stewart said. “His name is Rick Santelli. He’s an analyst for CNBC and he’s a former derivatives trader. He recently became famous for a sort of Howard Beale moment on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.”
Although it has been alleged that CNBC has “shut Santelli up,” since his appearances on CNBC have been toned down, Stewart initiated mocking routine by claiming Santelli, who reports from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange – not an on-the-beat CNBC correspondent – had done “critical reporting” on the bailouts.
“He’d done some critical reporting on the hundreds of billions of dollars of bailout money going to failed banks and failed automakers and insurers of failed banks and automakers. But when it looked like the president wanted a small percentage of that money to go to actual homeowners, woah – David Banner became the incredible Santelli.”
Stewart showed his audience part of Santelli’s outburst and criticized it. “Yeah man! Wall Street is mad as hell and they’re not gonna take it anymore,” Stewart said. “Unless by ‘it’ you mean $2 trillion in their own bailout money. That they will take.”
But Santelli’s comments were made on the trading floor, with exchange clerks and floor personnel chiming in. These were not the managers of the financial institutions who accepted bailouts or the policymakers and regulatory agencies that neglected their duties and created the woes plaguing the financial markets around the world.
Stewart expressed frustration that Santelli wouldn’t be able to appear on the show, but didn’t mention that Santelli would have to be on the floor of the
“Now, Mr. Santelli was invited to come on this program and accepted the invitation and then on Friday, canceled – or I guess the phrase would be bailed out,” Stewart said. “Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Hey, how many people would have liked to see Santelli come on this program? Are you listening? Are you listening Rick Santelli?”
Sarcastically referring to CNBC as the “best of the best,” Stewart mocked Santelli and his network for every bad statement, question or prediction by its reporters in the past two years, including CNBC “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer’s bad call that now-failed Bear Stearns was “OK” just days before its collapse.
