CNBC reporters Santelli, Liesman go at it on the air

Robert MacMillan of Reuters reports Tuesday that CNBC business reporter Rick Santelli and Steve Liesman, the chief economics correspondent for the network, got into it on the air when Santelli said that Liesman was asking stupid questions.

“One CNBC reporter, Dennis Kneale, wondered aloud if it would be illegal for, say, a lawyer to recommend to Lewis that he violate ‘Reg FD’ disclosure laws that would more or less deceive Bank of America’s shareholders into accepting the deal, knowing that if they were aware of Merrill’s troubled condition, they would oppose it with their very lives.

“Then this happened (Beware: Everyone was speaking over everyone else, so we might have missed a word or two here and there):

Liesman: Ask the question in a more compelling way: ‘I want you to save the world and not disclose.’

Santelli: Come on, Steve! Are we going to come up with excuses to break the rules? To break the law? You sound like Richard Nixon! Who did you vote for, Steve?

Liesman: All I was posing was the ethical issue here. If it helps out to stabilize the system, is there a compelling reason to not disclose? I am not advocating that.

Santelli: You don’t break rules in a crisis condition!

Liesman: If you want to blow a gasket on that, Rick, well then, blow it on somebody else — not me!

Santelli: Well, then don’t open your mouth and say dumb things!

Read more here.