Letter: Canceling Grodin’s talk show fuels reader’s boycott of CNBC

Friday, June 12, 1998 | 10:25 a.m.

It seems Grodin's biggest sin, according to CNBC, was "criticizing capitalism." Well, if complaining about homelessness, hunger and an inadequate health care system, which he sometimes did, is considered criticism of capitalism, you can count me and millions more Americans as fellow criticizers.

Although this may have had a lot to do with his dismissal, I am sure that the big reason was that he put the Lewinsky "gossip frenzy" in its proper context, which is who in the hell cares, and had strong words for some of his fellow CNBC hosts and the media in general for their continual peeking into the president's bedroom and trying to take him down.

I am curious to know who this network's financial backers are, and I smell Richard Mellon Scaife somewhere behind the scenes. I would venture the opinion that 90 percent of its "talk" shows discuss the Lewinsky affair and other rumors about President Clinton 90 percent of the time.

This outfit has turned once-honest journalists such as Chris Matthews and Tim Russert into glorified Peeping Toms at best and scandal-mongering right-wing kooks at the worst, prostituting themselves for big bucks, some of them from Scaife himself. I would look for Geraldo to be the next to go as he has been supercritical of Scaife's buddy, Ken Starr.

For this reason, I have vowed to quit watching CNBC, at least until Starr's house of cards comes crashing down. Then I will tune in to listen to all of the Scaife "prostitutes" eat crow.

Dan Olivier