Gasparino fires back at allegations that CNBC helped kill Bear Stearns

CNBC‘s Charles Gasparino went on the air Tuesday to refute allegations in a recent Vanity Fair article that claimed that the business news network helped put Bear Stearns & Co. out of business by airing rumors about its financial situation.

Jeff Poor of the Business & Media Institute reports, “Gasparino’s July 8 ‘Power Lunch’ rebuttal slammed comments from JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon who complained about CNBC’s reporting in an interview aired on PBS’s July 7 “The Charlie Rose Show.’ Vanity Fair also issued a story in its August 2008 issue blaming Bear Stearns’ situation on CNBC and three other companies.

But according to Gasparino, assertions that rumors were responsible for Bear Stearns’ collapse are the product of ‘ill-informed writers and reporters’ and that the company had several fundamental flaws –- including its leadership –- which caused the investment bank’s failure.

“‘I mean, what he [Dimon] was essentially saying is that he believes that rumors brought down Bear Stearns,’ Gasparino said. ‘I know that’s become popular among some ill-informed writers and reporters lately –- that rumors took out a firm that had bad management, which earlier in the summer, the CFO got on a conference call and said this was the worst financial debacle he’s ever seen and the stock went down like 10 bucks in three minutes, a same firm where, you know –- the CEO was playing golf while Rome was burning.’

“‘You could name a million problems with Bear Stearns that kind of gave the impression that there was a problem there –- a real desperate problem,’ said Gasparino. ‘And it ain’t rumors; I got news for you.'”

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