MSNBC twice aired Santelli's criticism of administration foreclosure plan

[Joanne98]

Summary: Twice on February 20, MSNBC promoted Rick Santelli's rant the previous day over President Obama's proposed foreclosure reduction plan, which Santelli said "promot bad behavior" and "subsidiz the losers' mortgages." In neither case did MSNBC provide any substantive response to those criticisms.

Without providing any substantive response, on February 20, MSNBC twice promoted CNBC on-air editor Rick Santelli's February 19 rant over what Santelli said was the government's "promoting bad behavior" and "subsidiz the losers' mortgages" through President Obama's proposed foreclosure reduction plan.

When CNBC anchor Trish Regan reported on Santelli's comments during the February 19 broadcast of NBC's Nightly News, she included Moody's Economy.com co-founder Mark Zandi's response that the administration's plan "is a bitter pill to swallow, but it's one we need to swallow, so that the financial system, the economy, don't slide away" and that "you have a choice, either you can help your neighbor and help them so they can stay in their home, or don't help them, and they'll lose their home, and it'll cost you money because you'll be worth less because your home will have just dropped in value." However, when Santelli was interviewed about his comments on the February 20 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe, no one provided or aired any substantative reply to Santelli, either from Zandi or anyone else. Later that morning on MSNBC Live, anchor Tamron Hall replayed and discussed Santelli's comments; again, no substantive response was provided.

In addition, Scarborough and co-host Mike Barnicle falsely suggested during their interview of Santelli that Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) has only recently advocated a government focus on rental housing. Scarborough said, "e had Barney Frank on a couple of weeks ago, who had been a big proponent, along with a lot of Republicans, of homeownership. When he was on our show, he said, you know, some people should just rent their properties." Barnicle later replied, "hen the history of this period -- this financial period -- is written, there is a language of catastrophe that was introduced into the equation -- I don't know -- 10 or 12 years ago, in the sense that with the best of intentions, we had numerous politicians, mostly on the Democratic side of the aisle, saying everybody ought to be able to own a home in America." In fact, as Media Matters for America has noted, Frank has long advocated that the government focus on expanding affordable rental housing.

From the February 20 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe:

SCARBOROUGH: Let's bring in right now CNBC's Rick Santelli. Rick, I had asked at -- during the 6 o'clock hour whether you had been just as critical of the Wall Street bailout. We were informed by millions of your fans -- and I always say a million Rick Santelli fans can't be wrong -- that, in fact, you did. Why were you so angry yesterday? What do you think the root cause of this problem is?

SANTELLI: Well, I think the root cause is that there has been overleverage -- you know, many people in media like to blame the market. The market is just a representation, a mechanism to deliver people's messages and trades. I think what we need to do here is be cognizant that the world looks to us for things like consistency of contract law. Why does the U.S. always snap back? Rural investors seem comfortable. Let's not give that away to judges in bankruptcy court.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200902200016

[Parche]

1. i guess the guy

wants to go back to the past 8years of inaction and standing down

we have to do something


and why did we give billions to wall street?, same thing isnt it?

[alstephenson]

2. I noticed the same thing when watching MSNBC this morning.

Chuck Todd was pulling shit out of his ass and then presenting it as fact. If this is how "liberal" MSNBC is slanting things, I can't imagine what they are saying on Faux News. The media is complicit in everything that's happened over the last 8 years.

[Kat45]

3. That man's rant, and the media's constant showing of it, pissed me off.

He was emphasizing the "every man for himself" philosophy so common among Republicans, when we need, more than ever, to get back to the sense of community and helping each other that has been so missing in the dark days (years) ruled by the right wing.