NBC Cable Business News Channel CNBC Emerges as Hotbed of Free-Market Ideology

Think of right-of-center news or opinion in America, and what spring to mind are talk radio, Fox News Channel, some magazines, the Wall Street Journal editorial page. But probably not NBC. That network is known for, if anything, a left-wing tilt on MSNBC, where Rachel Maddow holds forth, as did, until his recent departure, Keith Olbermann.Somewhat under the radar, though, the Peacock network’s cable business news channel, CNBC, is emerging as a hotbed of free-market ideology.It started in February 2009, with CNBC reporter Rick Santelli’s appearance on a Chicago trading floor, which went viral on YouTube. “We’re thinking of having a Chicago Tea Party….I’m going to start organizing,” he said. Lawrence Kudlow, whose show is on CNBC weeknights at 7 p.m., has a “Kudlow creed” on his show’s Web site proclaiming, “Free market capitalism is the best path to prosperity.”In 2010, CNBC hired John Carney, who, while not as outspoken in his politics as his brothers Timothy (who works for the Washington Examiner) or Brian (who is with the Wall Street Journal editorial page) nonetheless shares their free-market sensibilities. Also in 2010, CNBC anchor Michelle Caruso-Cabrera came out with a book titled You Know I’m Right: More Prosperity, Less Government, in which she called for eliminating entirely the federal departments of education, commerce, energy, transportation, and housing and urban development, along with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Social Security, and Medicare.The latest CNBC personality to emerge as a vehement defender of free markets is Joe Kernan, co-anchor of CNBC’s morning “Squawk Box” program. His new book, written with his daughter Blake, is called Your Teacher Said What?! Defending Our Kids From the Liberal Assault on Capitalism. In it, Mr. Kernan discloses that he did not vote for Barack Obama in 2008, and he describes “free market capitalism” as “an unmatched engine of prosperity.”Mr. Kernen’s book is really wonderful. Here he is explaining why antitrust regulation is basically unnecessary: Businesses with monopoly pricing power will always emerge, he says. “But in a free market, they don’t last, as other firms, attracted by the profits that a monopolist earns, enter the business. The only monopoly pricing power that lasts, in fact, is the sort that is created by the government.”Also destined to be a classic is the chapter titled “Who Made My Shoelaces?” It’s a variation on Leonard Read’s famous essay, “I, Pencil,” that, like the original, captures what Mr. Kernen calls “the real magic of free markets.”That said, Mr. Kernen’s book, like the broader phenomenon of CNBC’s emergence as a hotbed of free-market types, is not without certain contradictions. Mr. Kernen writes that the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, “was needed,” but he doesn’t mention the U.S. taxpayer guarantee for as much as $139 billion in debt offered by CNBC’s then-parent company, General Electric. The acknowledgements also thank GE CEO Jeff Immelt, described by Mr. Kernan as a “mentor,” without getting into the way that Mr. Immelt, the chairman of President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, has maneuvered GE into such close relations with the government that David Stockman is describing Mr. Immelt as “the nation’s number one crony capitalist.”Press critics on the left will doubtless find something inappropriate about journalists assigned to cover capitalism at CNBC writing books extolling its virtues. But consumers may actually find it refreshing to see reporters being transparent about their beliefs and voting history rather than hiding behind a pretense of objectivity. And if viewers don’t like it, they can always watch something else — another benefit of free markets.Mr. Stoll is editor of FutureOfCapitalism.com and author of Samuel Adams: A Life.

NBC Cable Business News Channel CNBC Emerges as Hotbed of Free-Market Ideology

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