Rick Santelli: I Want to Set the Record Straight

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/03/02/entertainment/e162835S91.DTL&feed=rss.business

CNBC says reporter Rick Santelli is not connected to a Web site that used his name to promote a series of political protests against President Barack Obama.

Santelli's name was stripped from headlines on the home page of www.reteaparty.com Monday after its operator was made aware of CNBC's dissatisfaction. The site was operating within 24 hours after the reporter's self-described rant on Feb. 19, when he said the president's plan to help people in danger of home foreclosure was "promoting bad behavior."

Video of Santelli's appearance at the Chicago Board of Trade has been seen nearly 2 million times on CNBC's Web site, more than anything the network has ever posted, and more than 855,000 times on YouTube.

Before it was altered Monday, the Web site described "Rick Santelli's Re-Tea Party" four times on its home page, urging people to organize for protests. It had an "About Rick" link with the CNBC on-air editor's profile, saying he "voiced the sentiment of millions of Americans on the stock market floor."

(snip)

Despite the inherent dangers of others trying to use it for political purposes, CNBC's management supports Santelli's outspokenness, Steel said. It's a reflection of a trend on cable news over the past couple of years with Lou Dobbs, Bill O'Reilly and Keith Olbermann: clear points of view are big sellers.

Santelli posted a long letter on CNBC's Web site Monday, where he said his rant was spontaneous and not scripted, as some critics have claimed.

Link to letter here:

http://www.cnbc.com//id/29471026

(end snip)

IMHO, that letter is a non-denial denial? IMHO only.

a tool, a nothingness.

I never believed this story had legs.

a few DUers dug up the info on him and the websites.

Glad to K and R this one.

On Edit:
Here a link to a DU thread that has a lot of info. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5159165&mesg_id=5159165

on any of the Cable Chatter Channels today. Funny how that works!

Also no publicity on the tea parties thrown this weekend.

Wonder why?

Could it be that info contained in that link?

Oh and "CNBC's management supports Santelli's outspokenness" means CNBC's management also supports the GOP machine. Again, not surprising, but quite an admission.

That was showing how pre-planned his "spontaneous" rant was, proving him both a GOP tool and a liar.

These dumbasses have been busted cold for setting up Santelli's rant and now they are trying to bury it.

I guess registering a web site that just so happens to have the same name as the "scripted" rant was an oversight that got caught.

This has the Koch empire's fingerprints all over it. And, it was planned.

In order to salvage Mr Santelli's journalistic integrity. :sarcasm:

:rofl:

start sending out your resume."

They may or may not have been in on the scam.. but they can't allow themselves to get sucked into the revelations that were uncovered about the whole tea party mess....

All on camera.

Sure, Little ricky. Whatever you say. You had your little tantrum and everyone around you just happened to stop what they were doing to listen and then raise their hands when asked. Sure. Spontaneous and unscripted.

:rofl:

seems to have been scrubbed...but I did find this from Sourcewatch...
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Charles_G._Koch_Charitable_Foundation

AND ISSUED A PRIVATE APOLOGY TO THE DAILY BAIL.

http://dailybail.com/home/2009/3/1/the-mother-of-all-irony-playboy-magazine-targets-the-daily-b.html


"The link below no longer works but I found a link with the article cached here in its entirety. It seems they not only didn't do their research on us, but they failed even to establish the basic thesis of their article. We assume that Santelli and FreedomWorks and perhaps others have filed a lawsuit for slander. Uh-oh. One day you're a hero and the next day a liar. Marc Ames and Yasha Levine, I hope you get fired and end up being forced to snort worms for the rest of your days. Thanks for ruining my weekend, you bastards.

I built a links squirrel with a dozen or so articles on this mess. Click here.


Below is my original article in its entirety.



I step away from the site for 24 hours and all hell breaks loose. Consider for a moment the succulent irony of Playboy magazine accusing someone else of being fake. Thanks for that collective moment as you become me for a second. I found out tonight that Playboy wrote about us yesterday. And we didn't get a happy ending. (last sex pun.)

It's the lead story on the Playboy Blog. It's a conspiracy-soaked read about Rick Santelli and the organizations loosely aligned behind the Chicago Tea Party. Writers Mark Ames and Yasha Levine did some mundane research and pieced together a decent story. There's only one problem, everything they wrote about us is completely incorrect. The writers tossed us under the bus as they headed to conclusion, simply because of our support for Santelli and the various tea party protests..."

Gibbs, Olbermann and Cenk all either said or implied, in the case of Gibbs, that Santelli was in favor of the other bailouts, but anyone who has watched him on a regular basis knows this was not true.

This story would have fallen off the radar if Gibbs had not mentioned him by name in the press conference, but it was a great diversion from the real culprits who dealt in the OTC derivatives and the regulators and people in Congress who turned a blind eye to what was happening.


"First of all let me be clear that I have NO affiliation or association with any of the websites or related tea party movements that have popped up as a result of my comments on February 19th, or to the best of my knowledge any of the people who organized the websites or movements. By the way of background, I am not and never have been a stockbroker. Not that there is anything wrong with being a stockbroker. The home I have lived in for 20 years is a 2,500-square foot ranch. Not that there is anything wrong with owning a larger, grander house. I am currently an on air editor with CNBC. Prior to my 10 years in this capacity I was a member in good standing on both the Chicago Futures Exchanges. My career in the futures industry spanned 20 years.

Anyone who has watched my thousands of appearances on CNBC is well acquainted with my aggressive and impassioned style. Over the next several days CNBC.com will put up some of my other passionate broadcasts of the past...


Just for the record I have NOT been in favor of any of the bailouts not in the Bush administration nor the Obama administration. Not for the banks, the insurance companies, or the homeowners that purchased homes they can no longer afford. I have consistently questioned the notion that hard working Americans that have played by the rules should be on the hook for others ill fated financial behavior. This is very easily proven....the record is in the video archives of CNBC for any media outlet interested in representing the facts...


...Trillions of dollars of debt are being created without a commensurate amount of debate by all involved. And the idea that future generations unable to voice an opinion or vote may be saddled with mountains of debt through no fault of their own, is an issue too large to shirk from.

If one doesn't agree with my opinions....I can respect that. It is very American to disagree. It is very UN-American to belittle or ignore the FACTS, freedom of the press, freedom of speech, or the voices of millions of Americans that demand better answers, more transparency, deeper accountability, and the simple idea that our elected officials represent all Americans. All Americans should be treated fairly and equitably as our government puts forth solutions. Mr. Gibbs, the President's Press Secretary, said I did not read the Presidents Mortgage Plan; for the record, I did read the plan and listened to it live as President Obama was presenting it. Anyone who knows me or views CNBC regularly is keenly aware of the fact that I am exceedingly thorough in my homework..."

The video when he opened his stupid right wing mouth proves he's a un-American republican pos.

He should put POS over his face like that other freak did with the backward B.
;-)

when they stated or implied he was in favor of the other bailouts.

As I said earlier this has been a great diversion from those who created this mess.

:eyes:

Gibbs, Olbermann and Cenk all either said or implied, in the case of Gibbs, that Santelli was in favor of the other bailouts, but anyone who has watched him on a regular basis knows this was not true.

This story would have fallen off the radar if Gibbs had not mentioned him by name in the press conference, but it was a great diversion from the real culprits who dealt in the OTC derivatives and the regulators and people in Congress who turned a blind eye to what was happening.

The original script called for Santelli to demand, "Are you listening, President McCain?" And as everyone knows, Santelli, after two carefully counted beats, turned toward the fortuitously-placed camera and roared, "Are you listening, Mr. President?"

Totally different, completely unscripted, 100% certified spontaneous.

Any of you interested in setting the record straight? Let's look for links between Santelli and Zachary 'Zack ' Christenson, Milt Rosenberg, and others found on the various investigation threads.

Zack Christenson, the executive producer for the Milt Rosenberg show (WGN Radio Chicago)
Sanelli's contract is up this summer,
Santelli 'reports' from the Chicago Board of Trade
From Zack Christenson's website:
We have launched the official Chicago Tea Party website (chicagoteaparty.com). Run on Tumblr of course. We’re still in the planning stages, but we have big plans for it. It was registered in August and Santelli just ranted (this month) that he was calling for a Chicago Tea party to protest the anti-forclosure plan. Chicago Tea Party.com was taking emails from others who would like to participate.

Word around the Board of Trade 24 hours post rant is that Santelli had >1100 emails from people already.

Any of you interested in digging some more? Can we work together to streamline threads?

I found this harsh critique of Milt and Zack
http://warmowski.wordpress.com/2009/03/01/dont-be-a-koch-sucker-santellis-tea-party-protests-anything-but-spontaneous/

01
Mar
09Don’t Be A Koch Sucker: Santelli’s Tea Party Protests Anything But Spontaneous

http://susiemadrak.com/2009/02/28/19/30/playboy-the-santelli-rant-appears-planned/


Playboy: The Santelli Rant Appears Planned

“How did a minor-league TV figure, whose contract with CNBC is due this summer, get so quickly launched into a nationwide rightwing blog sensation? Why were there so many sites and organizations online and live within minutes or hours after his rant, leading to a nationwide protest just a week after his rant?

What hasn’t been reported until now is evidence linking Santelli’s “tea party” rant with some very familiar names in the Republican rightwing machine, from PR operatives who specialize in imitation-grassroots PR campaigns (called “astroturfing”) to bigwig politicians and notorious billionaire funders. As veteran Russia reporters, both of us spent years watching the Kremlin use fake grassroots movements to influence and control the political landscape. To us, the uncanny speed and direction the movement took and the players involved in promoting it had a strangely forced quality to it. If it seemed scripted, that’s because it was.

What we discovered is that Santelli’s “rant” was not at all spontaneous as his alleged fans claim, but rather it was a carefully-planned trigger for the anti-Obama campaign. In PR terms, his February 19th call for a “Chicago Tea Party” was the launch event of a carefully organized and sophisticated PR campaign, one in which Santelli served as a frontman, using the CNBC airwaves for publicity, for the some of the craziest and sleaziest rightwing oligarch clans this country has ever produced. Namely, the Koch family, the multibilllionaire owners of the largest private corporation in America, and funders of scores of rightwing thinktanks and advocacy groups, from the Cato Institute and Reason Magazine to FreedomWorks. The scion of the Koch family, Fred Koch, was a co-founder of the notorious extremist-rightwing John Birch Society.”

What is Playboy’s evidence of this?

“Within hours of Santelli’s rant, a website called ChicagoTeaParty.com sprang to life. Essentially inactive until that day, it now featured a YouTube video of Santelli’s “tea party” rant and billed itself as the official home of the Chicago Tea Party. The domain was registered in August, 2008 by Zack Christenson, a dweeby Twitter Republican and producer for a popular Chicago rightwing radio host Milt Rosenberg—a familiar name to Obama campaign people. Last August, Rosenberg, who looks like Martin Short’s Irving Cohen character, caused an outcry when he interviewed Stanley Kurtz, the conservative writer who first “exposed” a personal link between Obama and former Weather Undergound leader Bill Ayers. As a result of Rosenberg’s radio interview, the Ayers story was given a major push through the Republican media echo chamber, culminating in Sarah Palin’s accusation that Obama was “palling around with terrorists.” That Rosenberg’s producer owns the “chicagoteaparty.com” site is already weird—but what’s even stranger is that he first bought the domain last August, right around the time of Rosenburg’s launch of the “Obama is a terrorist” campaign. It’s as if they held this “Chicago tea party” campaign in reserve, like a sleeper-site. Which is exactly what it was.

As you know I've questioned this from the beginning when you referred to one of the teaparty sites as Santelli's site...I did not see the proof in your original thread.

I don't know what you guys have been watching, but Rick Santelli is the most non-political reporter on the network.

I always thought he was a democrat, and the way he talks ( his "rant" notwithstanding ) and I still do.

He was against the bailout, and so was most of the folks here.

Find one statement out of his mouth that you find inflamatory, and I will kiss your over-sensitive ass.

The guy should get the fked out of America if he doesn't like it.

Again just another right wing pos.

You are being POLItical. That's why the words sound alike. And we should be sick to death of the utterly stupid pretension that arguing for laissez-faire non-interventionists free markets is a "non-political" position. It is the DOMINANT political position for the last thirty years. And it is an abject failure. Rick Santelli is as political as they come, a flunky for the capitalist class, and nothing more.

"Business" media is of the worst offenders of propaganda.
Mr. Santelli is a WHORE for Wall Street.