Categories: OLD Media Moves

Sexist banter on CNBC

Marisa Guthrie of Broadcasting & Cable noted Monday that CNBC anchor Dylan Ratigan’s sexist banter is turning off viewers.

Guthrie wrote, “On Friday morning’s edition of The Call, CNBC correspondent Melissa Francis, who was reporting on frenzied gasoline trading from NYMEX, asked Ratigan: ‘Is it as crazy on your exchange as it is here?’

“Ratigan’s comeback: ‘I think if I was blond and beautiful I could draw a big crowd.’

“Francis, visibly irked, responded: ‘That’s not what it is all about.’

“Ratigan was obviously chastened, and (mercifully) put his locker room repartee on ice for the remainder of the broadcast.

“CNBC had no comment.

“Sadly, such comments are hardly atypical from Ratigan and his band of merry he-men.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.

View Comments

  • Give me a break. Dylan ad-libs all day long. So he makes one comment that he shouldn't have. And this Marisa makes it seem like he's all evil and sexist.

    Dylan is a good guy; Marisa needs to lighten up a bit. I mean, if she looked like Erin Burnett than maybe someone would say something about the way she looks!

  • The comment was uncalled for. You can ad-lib without calling attention to someone else's looks. It is deeming to suggest that someone is successful in a professional enviroment just because of physical attributes. I am glad he took the hint and didn't continue to add to the original comment.

  • Carol: the word ain't "deeming". i think you meant to say "demeaning". Thanks for throwing a dart at my comment -- though it would help if you used the English language properly!!!

  • I did mean to say "demeaning." Thank you for catching my error, al. I regret that my failure to proof read weakened my point.

  • Cool down guys. All of us are just humans - so errors are natural. So is with Ratigan and Carol.:smile:

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