CNBC's Erin Burnett Wants Your Emails

Last month, on the Huffington Post, I wrote about NBC's "Erin Burnett problem" after she relentlessly spouted Wall Street talking points on Meet The Press.

I pointed out that we have a bunch of "embedded" reporters on Wall Street -- like we did at the start of the Iraq War -- who feel so dependent on their sources for access that they don't ask tough questions or give the public the information we desperately need to be informed during this time of crisis. (Jon Stewart later proved this point beautifully in his epic critique of CNBC.)

Well, NBC's Erin Burnett problem is back.

This morning, on Morning Joe, for no apparent reason, she blurted out, "I'm going to throw this out there, it's just a question..." and then went on a long rant about "the whole question about unemployment benefits themselves." As in, should they even exist?

After all, she pointed out, they don't have them in China (the epitome of a pro-worker country). She asked, "Does that encourage people in places like China to go get jobs more quickly rather than waiting to exhaust their unemployment benefits?"

Donny Deutsch, who happened to be on the set with Scarborough, helpfully pointed out, "Erin, if you met some people who are out of work right now, I don't think they'd be telling you that they're not working because they're waiting for unemployment benefits to run out."

Burnett agreed, "No doubt." But then said, "We get a lot of emails where people say, maybe they do wait a little bit." She added that she has no opinion on it, but people are talking about it so "it's fair to bring up."

Obviously, Burnett appreciates viewer email so much that she's willing to repeat even the most uninformed ones on air. For all my critique of Burnett, her openness to emails from the public is commendable.

So, let's email her some feedback on what we think her role as a CNBC Wall Street reporter should be: [e-mail]

Here's my email, sent this morning -- feel free to put yours in the comments below!

From: Adam Green

To: "Burnett, Erin"
Date: Thu, Mar 12, 2009 at 9:28 AM
Subject: wow - seriously?

Erin,

Hi -- this is Adam Green. I saw Morning Joe this morning. I don't know what to say except, "seriously?"

Did you really just use your platform as a journalist to hold PEOPLE APPLYING FOR UNEMPLOYMENT's feet to the fire? You think the reason people aren't finding jobs is because they are lounging around, coasting off their unemployment checks - seriously?

That was one of the most out-of-touch things I've ever seen. You appeared oblivious to the fact that many of the CEOs you interview continue to give themselves exorbitant salaries at the same time they lay off $30,000-a-year employees. You also seem oblivious to the fact that, for economic stimulus, unemployment checks happen to be one of the best returns on invest out there, next to food stamps -- will you be taking on people on food stamps next?

You hid behind your emails, saying you were just relaying what you heard over email, so let me give you an excuse to do your job in this email: Your job during these economic times is to hold WALL STREET ACCOUNTABLE. You should be asking your sources tough questions that debunk any mis-truths they are telling to the public, and pressing them on claims that are too good to be true (see Jon Stewart's recent CNBC montages for countless examples of CEOs saying their companies were fine weeks before going under).

Your job is to ask questions to Wall Street that are so hard that you actively lose a couple sources that you've cultivated for years -- why? Because as a journalist, you are supposed to be a watchdog for the public, not for Wall Street.

Will you commit to doing that? Some time in the next week, will you randomly insert into a conversation something that calls out a Wall Street executive for policies that hurt the little guy and hurt the economy?

I'll likely be blogging this on Huffington Post, so please consider this on the record and a request for comment.

Sincerely,
Adam

Note: If she comments, I'll update.

Comments

[bsween]

was just watching power points they were saying the media likes BO because he is smart like them i have never heard a more false statement in my life maybe they like him because it is all about money also cramer was right BO took a crises turned it into a catastrophe if he is going to spend the next four yrs blameing bush for his failurs he should have stayed at the little kids table

[Geoffrey W]

There are people who don't believe in your lousy economic ideology.

It will FAIL!

[waltn]

She is frankly disgusting....

How about if the U.S. ensures that for every high-tech American job that corporations give to cheap foreign labor we ensure that the country supply troops to Iraq and Afghanistan.

I'd like to know how many troops India has sent to Iraq and Afghanistan. The US is fighting the world's wars and the world is low-wage balling American jobs.

[pissedoff12345]

She said "we're spending a lot of money extending those things" ...

"those things"????? refering to unemployment benefits?

WOW - apparently, it's perfectly OK to spend BILLIONS of taxpayer money on bonuses and bailouts, but it's NOT ok to spend a fraction of that on unemployment benefits?

Speechless. Shaking my head.

[Wiseronenow]

First off, calling Burnett a "journalist" is subject to say the least. Secondly, does anyone know whether she is related to the Burnett who produces the Apprentice and other shows on NBC? I think she is. So, coming from a position of privilege, I guess she feels entitled to speak so negatively about the hard-working Americans who are getting s.c.r.e.w.e.d with this economy.

[hatinze]

No, he's a differnet Burnett. I think he's from the United Kingdom who moved to the states. I remember hearing that about 10 years ago or so he was handing out brochures to tourists in Southern California before breaking into television at the ground floor and working his way up. So good for him -- although I don't like his shows.

Erin Burnett does come from a wealthy family in Maryland, expensive private schooling, etc. She couldn't even make it more than a year on Wall Street before getting into media.

She is not a journalist and has no credentials for offering financial analysis. Note the fact that Steve Liesman was picked to defend CNBC on Meet The Press this morning, not Erin, who has tried to get a seat at the "roundtable" as often as she can. She's a wannabe media celebrity who is apparently trying to transition out of CNBC and into other NBC shows. If there is a spot for her anywhere, I guess it's somewhere on the Today show.

But with all the stupid things she's said and continues to do, I think she may end up to be another Ashley Banfield.

[ybfmiami]

Steve Liesman is the only credible reporter at CNBC. I hope he gets out of there soon before he is permanently tarnished.

Donny Deutch appears to have a modicum of compassion for those less fortunate ("LOSERS" in CNBC speak). How he can get through any segment without puking over the obnoxious comment s of his CNBC colleagues is beyond me. I hope he gets out of there soon as well.

[treetracker]

Part 5

We don't want to hear YOUR complaints about a mixed message coming from Washington - it's not a mixed message - we're not stupid, right or left we can see clearly what President Obama's vision is.

What we want from the media is a well reasoned, thought out, unbiased assessment explaining the upsides and the downsides. And leave your personal opinions out of it. Find reasonable people to interview who do not have an axe to grind. I am just absolutely sick to death of seeing the same talking heads come on day after day to beat the same dead horse. Surely to God there are reasonable people out there who can look at something and tell the truth about it.

And, if a lie is told or the truth is twisted, people need to be called out on it. You can't let them get by with misleading statements. Unless, of course, your goal is to mislead the public. Is that it?

The media is failing this country and unless they start acting like the 4th estate again, this country is going to go down in flames.

[fairandjust]

Excellent comment/email.

Here's hoping we see Jon Stewart show this piece-of-work speak her "bash the unemployed" garbage.

Obviously now NBC, MSNBC, CNBC is using Erin Burnett to get out their Obama-hating, Dont-Dare-­Tax-the-Ri­ch talking points. Especially now that Santelli and Cramer were made to look like complete idiots.

Wow - she is some mean and nasty thing.

[obamagal]

Bravo. Excellent comment.

[treetracker]

Part 4

Well now you've got no demand, 'cause we're not buying and the market has tanked and the "rich got soaked". Boo hoo. What do you think happened to our 401K plans? The only money some of us have to retire on or send our kids to college or have as a back up in case we get seriously ill? I'll tell you what happened - they're pretty much toast. And most all of us have ONE home, not seven and it's not worth 7 + million. We're lucky if it's worth $150K.

And all you people have done throughout is cheer lead Wall Street. Cheer lead supply side economics. Cheer lead the increase in YOUR portfolios. Did any of you ever ask a hard question? Did any of you ever SERIOUSLY do an investigation and come up with an analysis that was UNBIASED and IDEOLOGY FREE?

The right complains about Kenysian economics, the left about Freidman - don't you guys get it that neither are completely right? Just like the Dems and the GOP are never completely right. The country and the economy need BALANCE. Business does not work without labor and labor does not work without business. Both sides want a fair shake but neither want to give up anything to reach that balance. And the same thing is happening now during the worst crisis this country has faced in over 80 years. And nobody wants to give anything to get to balance.

[treetracker]

Part 3

Where was the media outrage when then CEO Paulson ran off to D.C. and got the leverage ratio changed from 12/1 to 35-40/1? Where was the reporting saying this was a bad idea? Did any of you confront Paulson and ask him what in the hell was he thinking to leverage the world economy on a 40/1 bet?

Now you all run your mouths everyday blaming the "loser" homeowners. Well guess what - if Paulson hadn't put a 35-40/1 bet on all this crap they were selling around the world and the rest of the financial geniuses on Wall Street hadn't jumped on that gravy train, the foreclosure crisis would have merely been a blip on the screen.

But you guys keep it up - we're all just a bunch of human refuse out here that have no worth since we don't pay 60% of the taxes. But let me tell YOU something - if your buddies on Wall Street didn't have us poor @ss workers out here breaking our backs to make them money and then turn around and buy their products, they wouldn't have ONE DAMNED DIME in their pockets.

[treetracker]

Part 2

So, pray tell, Erin, what DO WE DO with the 1.5 million CHILDREN who are now homeless in this country - with more being added to the roles everyday? Oh, I get it - they need to take "responsibility" and take care of themselves. Or the parents who no longer have jobs should take "responsibility" and take care of them, because your rich buddies are too greedy to give up what? The cost of an expensive meal for two? An extra day or two on vacation? An expensive wine they've just been dying to drink? A fancy dinner party? The new boat? A vacation island? A new car for the kid? What? Because we know they won't be giving up any meals. Or a roof over their head. Or their medical care.

You and your ilk pushed Thatcher's ownership society (didn't work out too well in England, either) and that's what we got. Businesses pushing loans (every other TV commercial) - ones that had bad terms - pushing credit cards - use your home equity - have a better life - see all those rich people - you can be like them. It was ALL marketing. Supply side economics. And marketing does what it's supposed to do - it gets people to buy things they don't need or shouldn't have.

[Robert Cantor]

1.5 M indigent Children + solution =workhouses; that is what I think their 'ilk' envision. Trying to fit this into an historical context I think their 'ilk' (financial elites, Bushie administration and the non-religious right ideological extreme) envision a Victorian framework stretched over the USA - extreme wealth in the hands of a few, extreme poverty for the many and an active and strong military to absorb the excess person power.

[treetracker]

Part 1
Erin,

So it appears now you are promoting, suggesting, taking it out for a trial run, to end unemployment? So the least economically sound in our society, those who NEED unemployment should just pull themselves up by their bootstraps and find another job - maybe they will be 1 in 700 lucky enough to find a new job!

You whined on Bill Mahr about how all the wealthy had already got soaked with their wealth destruction and now they're going to get a "soak the rich" tax.

So because the tax rate of the wealthy is going to go up 4.6% (@$250K) you and all your buddies are really starting to feel the pain, are you?

Let's reflect a little on our history, shall we? 1944-45 tax rate was 90% on $200K - we were at war (2 fronts - same as now), people were without jobs, people were homeless, people were starving. I don't recall anyone whining about then - no complaints found in the history I've read or heard about.

[Gitmo]

Notice how we haven't heard anything from that Republican Wall Street puppet Rick Santelli lately?

Santelli watched Stewart destroy Cramer and he's been hiding under the desk in his office ever since.

[M1]

What a heartless fool she has turned out to be....to bad! Some people wait to get a job because they are enjoying their government cheese too much. How stupid a thing to say or lop out there as a question wherein she like a coward states she has no opinion. Right.

Goodness, in my small town people are living under the overhangs of abandoned strip mall buildings. They are off the grid, not getting benefits and are cold and hungry most nights. This little villiage has grown to 20 plus people in the last month. We are way past unemployment benefits here...we are losing people every month to the streets.

I hope unemployment benefits, health care and housing are made available to them before they become sick without hope and die. Now, I wish Ms. Burnett would have to live with them for one month and maybe she would have some understanding about how life is being lived by those who were the most financially vulnerable. Those who she and her kind have royally screwed.

[kyotobusker]

oops...obviously not a dong rather a song

[kyotobusker]

I recently wrote and posted on youtube a dong I liike to think sums a lot of this up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YN-6I4UHBd4
enjoy
christopher worth

[puertobill]

Erin Burnett and Jim Cramer are very good friends on the set of CNBC. Birds of a feather for sure. Also take a look at the crew at "Fast Money." I will be sending my email nest week so it doesn't get bogged down in the weekend shuffle.