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NBC "Reporter" Falsely Claims WH Threatened Him

By Big Tent Democrat

By now we all know CNBC's Rick Santelli is a buffoon. And NBC is the network for buffoons. But even NBC should take action for this:

CNBC’s Rick Santelli appeared on at least two radio programs today to promote his “rant” against President Obama’s housing program. On G. Gordon Liddy’s radio program, Santelli called attention to White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs’s response to his tirade. He cropped a quote from Gibbs to suggest the White House was pursuing a campaign of intimidation against him[.]

To put it bluntly, Santelli is lying. Let's repeat that - an NBC "reporter" is going on right wing radio shows and lying. This merits action by NBC. More . . .

From the Think Progress report:

SANTELLI: He started that press conference saying, “I don’t know where he lives, I don’t know where his house is.” This is the Press Secretary of the White House. Is that the kind of thing we want? Is that —

LIDDY: It’s a veiled threat.

SANTELLI: It really is. […] I don’t really want to be a spokesman, but I really am very proud of a) the response I’m getting, which is overwhelmingly positive, and b) discourse, that is debate. That if the pressure and the heat I’m taking from the White House – the fact my kids are nervous to go to school – I can take that, okay.

Here is what Gibbs actually said:

GIBBS: I’ve watched Mr. Santelli on cable the past 24 hours or so. I’m not entirely sure where Mr. Santelli lives or in what house he lives but the American people are struggling every day to meet their mortgages, stay in their jobs, pay their bills, send their kids to school.

If NBC were an actual journalistic enterprise, Santelli would be fired for this. It is not, so he won't even have to correct his lie.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on February 23, 2009 (boomark / email).