Brian Stelter of the New York Times writes Monday about how CNBC is doing everything it can to promote reporter Rick Santelli‘s on-air rant on Thursday about the economic bailout package.
Stelter writes, “A few hundred thousand viewers were watching the exchange broadcast, and it was immediately magnified by the Internet. Within minutes, CNBC posted the clip on CNBC.com and promoted it on the network’s home page.
“Within hours, the video was the lead story on The Drudge Report and elsewhere. By Sunday, it had been viewed nearly 1.7 million times, making it CNBC.com’s most popular video clip ever.
“The Web ‘extends the shelf life’ of TV segments, said Meredith Stark, the vice president of CNBC.com. Mr. Santelli ‘really touched a nerve,’ she said, and the online video ‘obviously extended the reach’ of his message. The segment was covered on TV, including on the ‘NBC Nightly News,’ and led to jabs by the White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, the next day.”
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