CNBC

Chris Matthews has renewed his contract with MSNBC to stay on another four years. That means we'll be treated to Chris's totally unbiased (wink) political coverage during the 2012 election!

Meanwhile, a new cable news personality is being born on CNBC. Perhaps ready to trust in someone other than Jim Cramer, CNBC has signed on Howard Dean as a regular contributor for business news.

Dean, like Cramer, is infamous for enthusiastically screaming into the camera, and he worked on Wall Street for a bit after graduating college. Dean also was an early critic of business practices that help create the financial crisis.

Both Matthews and Dean have dreams of public office — Chris hinted at a Senate run, and we all know Howard was willing and able to serve in the Obama administration. Are you happy to see these two on TV instead of in office?

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Thursday's roast on The Daily Show made it into Friday's White House press briefing. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was asked if the White House believed it was the obligation of journalists to call out lies as Jon Stewart did to the CNBC host. While he wasn't sure if President Obama saw it (though he did talk him about watching it beforehand), he "thoroughly enjoyed" it. Watch his full response below.

Lordy! I thought Jim Cramer was going to crack last night on The Daily Show when CNBC's ongoing kerfuffle with Jon Stewart came to a head. His voice wavered as Jon accused him of one-sided journalism — dishing out financial advice while not acknowledging the dirty work that goes on behind the markets.

How would old man Cramer know? Well, he used to run a hedge fund and manipulated the market for sport. Jon submits evidence with video clips from his hedge-fund days that goes a lot like this:

I would encourage anyone in a hedge fund to do it. Because it's legal. And it's a very quick way to make money — and very satisfying. By the way no one else in the world would ever admit that but I don't care. I'm not gonna say it on TV.

To see more of Cramer's voice cracking while apologizing for everything and nothing, read more

• Jim Cramer and Joe Scarborough are fed up with comedian/ideologue Jon Stweart. — Talking Points Memo
• Hillary Clinton stops by the Turkish version of The View to talk about marriage and fashion. — Jezebel
• Trying cocaine, down there, is all the rage with teenagers. — Lemondrop
• What language would you like to learn if you could? — SavvySugar
• Obama creates post for international women's issues. — Feministing

Last night Jon Stewart treated CNBC host Rick Santelli to an eight-minute-plus verbal/video smack down. A while back Santelli stood up for Wall Street when he said Americans don't want to bail out loser homeowners. Upset that Santelli canceled on the Daily Show, Jon gave CNBC the hypocrisy montage treatment, showing how the network's advice proved to be wrong over and over again. Jon said, "If I'd only followed CNBC's advice, I'd have a million dollars today — provided that I started with a hundred million dollars."

Yesterday fired-up CNBC reporter Rick Santelli laid into the president. He implored Obama to ask Americans whether they really want to "subsidize the losers' mortgages." The traders on the Chicago trading floor cheered for Santelli and booed at the mention of Obama's plan.

Today the White House officially addressed the rant, and Santelli by name. Press Secretary Gibbs asserted:

I think we left a few months ago the adage that if it was good for a derivatives trader than it was good for Main Street. I think the verdict is in on that. Mr. Santelli has argued, I think quite wrongly, that this plan won’t help everyone. . . . This plan helps people who have been playing by the rules. . . . I would encourage him to read the president’s plan . . . I’d be more than happy to have him come here to read it. I’d be happy to buy him a cup of coffee — decaf.

I guess Gibbs thinks Santelli has had enough caffeine. Gibbs also pointed out that when a home is foreclosed on, the homes surrounding lose about 9 percent in value.

Did Santelli's rant strike a chord with you, or do you agree with Gibbs?

A big oops on CNBC the other day when anchor Joe Kernan said, "Disney was the big winner . . . 'Pirates' plunders the box office, making $132 million in its first three days at the box office. The previous three-day record was 'Aquaman' at $120-plus, which beat out the $115 million which was set back by 'Spider-Man' back in May of '02." Too bad Aquaman is only real in the HBO Entourage world.

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