At 9:50 AM Erin Burnett and Mark Haines were talking about what was driving the selloff in equities today. Erin Burnett says; “If it is the LEI number in China driving the markets, which is a number that was only created in May and just revised down, that shows how pathetic the global markets are.” Well, I hate to be one of those bloggers that the Fed says not to listen to, but the reason we are selling off is because of a failed sanitizing ECB bond offering and the banks in Europe are in trouble. Combine that with horrible housing data, high unemployment, record deficits, bond yields reaching new lows, deflationary forces, slower economic growth, ECRI numbers rolling over and the technical’s of the market being bearish I think you can see why equities are selling off.

This, more or less, proves that CNBC is a cheerleader devoid of understanding what is really happening in the equity markets and they simply do not know how to do basic research. This is what happens when you parade all bulls on your program and shout down their opposition, who have been far more accurate. The situation in Europe is serious and China’s economy is slowing because of a stronger Euro, how no one is putting this together yet is beyond me, and there is simply less end demand for products. The only area where pricing power really exists is in food stuffs and most other industries have zero pricing power. Why? Simple, there is no demand which is why we have deflation right now!

Besides the reporters being completely inept and derelict in their duties, they fail to see the most basic issues confronting us today. As I said before, initial claims data has been a leading indicator, right now, of what is happening out there, again, how this was not seen is beyond me, and showed that the economy is extremely weak and really never recovered.  It is insane that they keep talking about the Chinese LEI versus the real issues surrounding the equities markets, it is part of it, but it is the other issues I pointed out. How they kept on the bandwagon of the ‘recovery’ story is a wonder that helps mark the death of the old media outlets where bias is tried and true and a pretty face is worth more than actual knowledge of what is going on in the world.

I ran across a a few articles of interest when I got thinking about my good friend Dennis. There were 2 articles I found interesting, one from Gawker and another from The New York Observer. The Gawker article dishes out the dirt on Kneale while the observer actually, apparently, paid for a lunch to interview him.

First, it is no secret that Mr. Kneale was simply looking to pick a fight and boost his ratings, I have made that point before, but this was quasi verified by Gawker. They supposedly had several stories on Mr. Kneale, but the one thing they wanted to share was that apparently Mr. Kneale has a hard time keeping his hands to himself around fellow employees and their wives. Whether its true or not, I don’t know. I do know that having a huge ego, not being Brad Pitt and alcohol are a bad combination which leads me to believe their may be some truth to this rumor. Mr. Kneale declined to comment on it saing he would not comment without knowing the name of the source, who is the dickweed?

Here is what Gawker had to say, and I believe this to be 100% true:

After Kneale’s repeated on-air outbursts against bloggers, in which he has called them “dickweeds” (see June 30 video above) and “digital imbeciles,” Kneale told our source who spoke privately with him that the crusade was dreamed up with his producer, former Fox News man Jerry Burke. The idea was to draw attention and drum up buzz.

Which is kind of pathetic, if you think about it, that a major cable news channel is trying to scare up viewers in the puny financial and media blogosphere. Still, there’s an outside chance the strategy could eventually produce PR gold; Kneale scored yesterday with a friendly article in the Observer.

Seems about right, don’t you think?

Second, Mr. Kneales hatred of bloggers is because they hit a nerve with him, not because some called him Beaker or whatever else, but because some bloggers posted pictures of a girl who died in a car crash in 2007 which many went on to attack or make fun of, I don’t get it, but some people are just deranged. This caused him to remember his father who was hit by a car walking home from a bar when he was 14, it was his birthday to according to Mr. Kneale.

Here is what The Observer wrote based on the Kneale interview:

Perhaps that’s because on an emotional level, Mr. Kneale can identify with the family members in the story who had suddenly lost a loved one in a car accident and were struggling to cope. To wit: One night, decades earlier, when Mr. Kneale was 14 years old, his father had been walking home from a bar in their small suburb outside Miami when he was struck and killed by a car.

Mr. Kneale said the sudden loss of his father changed his personality drastically. Beforehand, he had been a shy kid. Afterward, he became more outgoing and pugnacious. “When that happens, you’re like, well, fuck,” said Mr. Kneale. “There’s nothing you can do anymore that’s going to even come close to that. It’s like, ‘Bring it on. What have you got?’”

This may explain his obnoxious behavior, but it does not excuse it. He went on to say:

“My mom taught me, ‘Don’t say something if you can’t say it to somebody’s face,’” said Mr. Kneale. “Now, unfortunately, sometimes I misinterpreted that and I would say bad things to people’s faces. But that was better than, like, stabbing in the back.”

Now, I take offense to this because I did attempt to confront him, but I guess he knew he was an idiot and would look foolish. Regardless, this quote is clearly a lie because I would gladly call him what I called him to his face, but he could not to me. The irony is he constantly slams others behind their back, by his tirades on his floundering show, and then blames people like me for calling him what I know to be true of being a coward.

OK, Mr. Kneale we all have our sob stories, but you have zero practical experience in life or in finance. You were an editor, not a writer unlike myself who was a broker and never a writer. Therefore, you have no idea of the damage you can do by making claims that are not true. You will continue on this recession is over kick right up until the market starts to have a major correction. This means you probably talked a few people of investing near the top and will loose them a ton of money. Worst of all you will never be held responsible for your actions. However, I am sure you will not have your show by then, perhaps not even a job as even you know this gig is temporary, as you stated here:

During his first year and a half at CNBC, Mr. Kneale worked alongside several anchors on the tag-team news show Power Lunch. In late April, CNBC executives decided to give him a five night tryout anchoring the 8 p.m. hour. Some 14 weeks later, Mr. Kneale is still in the anchor chair.

“Now they’ve kind of forgotten that it’s just a tryout,” said Mr. Kneale. “Don’t tell them. … It may not last.”

On to your health care talk and to reduce costs outpatient care should be embraced and other utterly moronic statements I could quote. It is clear that you have never had anything seriously wrong with you and your minuscule intellect reflects that. Because unlike you I had/have cancer and know how screwed up our medical system is and can speak first hand about all the problems like the “standard level of care,” which means doctors get paid a lot of money to do the minimum amount of work, kind of like Mr. Kneale.

My point is this, we knew from the minute we got your producers email it was a set up and we knew you would pull a BS move like you did. Also, I, again, unlike you have had experience in finance and have my own sad story to tell. The difference is I am not afraid to say what I mean, to yours or Charlie’s face, and know the markets better than you could ever dream of. Keep reading that script and stumble through your presentation and maybe your technician can get those monitors to work.

I promise this is my last Kneale article, unless he does something really stupid, I know, I know, but I do have hope he is not a total tool. On that note, Mr. Kneale you are the original digital dickweed.

Just caught the beginning of tonight Kneale show. Am I the only one that noticed he claims “we are the ones watching him” and not vice versa, yet quoted posts/comments from todays blogs? Which one is it?

I find it sad that he couldn’t acknowledge the information I posted to support my position which I provided in my follow-up to lasts nights “debate”. Apparently Mr. Media/Technology Editor turned Stock Market Guru doesn’t seem to understand that bear market rallies do typically look like what we are seeing now. Rising stocks aren’t always indicative of recovery, particularly when there is low volume like we are currently seeing.

Still chuckling, awaiting another request to speak to him on air again, hopefully foe more then 20 seconds and maybe even a full sentence? How’s that for “Hope”?!

Too funny, I am sure he is going to say it was “reporting”, but it was a blog post. How do you know that? Because it offers some facts mixed with some opinions. His piece on the South Carolina Governor, Sanford, is merely a hit piece on a few other characters, but asks for forgiveness at the end of it.

Here is how he ended it; “And better yet, his wife is backing him. If she’s willing to forgive, seems like the rest of us could forgive him, too.” Sounds like an opinion to me. Oh well, just another freaking hypocrite in the media, well he is not media, so whatever.