CNBC’s Kernen: Krugman owes us an apology

CNBC anchor Joe Kernen says that the network deserves an apology from New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, who slammed it on his blog for asking tough questions during his appearance Wednesday.

Bonnie Kavoussi of The Huffington Post writes, “‘When someone disparages an entire network because he’s asked to defend his views I think the network deserves an apology,’ Kernen, a host of the CNBC show ‘Squawk Box,’ wrote in an e-mail to The Huffington Post on Thursday.

“Krugman, the Nobel Prize-winning Princeton economist, wrote on his New York Times blog on Wednesday morning after being interviewed by ‘Squawk Box’ that the interview ‘was one zombie idea after another’ and that ‘people getting their news from sources like that are probably getting terrible advice about any kind of investment that depends on macroeconomics.’

“Throughout the CNBC interview, Kernen tried to goad Krugman into naming a level of government spending that would be too high. Kernen also told Krugman that he views him ‘almost like a unicorn, almost, that you really exist in real life.’

“Kernen criticized Krugman throughout ‘Squawk Box’ on Thursday morning. ‘Getting an award, a Squawk Box book award, and signing a book: That does not constitute plugging Krugman’s book? That’s not good enough?’ Kernen told his co-host, the New York Times columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin. ‘I mean we gave him a celebration of his book, and he turned around and called you a zombie!'”

Read more here.