CNBC’s Dennis Kneale – the former Wall Street Journal and Forbes editor who picked an odd, prolonged fight with bloggers this summer (calling them “digital dickweeds” and “miscreants” akin to “pond scum”) – just Tweeted that the network has cancelled his show.
“[CNBC] just cancelled my show,” Kneale wrote. “[So I] am channeling Douglas Macarthur-meets-Terminator. ‘I shall return. I'll be back. Hasta la vista baby.’”
Kneale -- who once cried on the "Today" show when he agreed to give up his BlackBerry for a week -- joined CNBC from Forbes in 1997. He’s a regular on “Power Lunch” and had anchored CNBC’s 8:00 p.m. hour since April. Kneale will still appear on other CNBC shows.
“They cancelled [me] for same reason all TV shows get ax: low ratings,” he continued. “In the end it's my fault: I didn't bring enuf [sic] into tent.”
CNBC is expected to replace Kneale’s hour with documentary-style programming. “Seems the better choice ratings-wise, and I understand,” he wrote. “Bitterly.”
Back in late June, Kneale’s now-infamous on-air rant began like this:
After his CNBC producer called the segment "poetry, the best thing he’d done on the show," he went back to the bloggy well the very next night:
Whether Kneale was baiting the inevitable blogger backlash, trolling for ratings during the mid-summer doldrums, or truly expressing his feelings about the blogosphere (Kneale refers to himself as a “print-stained wretch” on his Twitter profile) is up for debate.
But it appears Kneale’s “poetry” was not enough to save him.
When CNBC moved Kneale from lunch hour to primetime, they considered it a tryout.
“CNBC [always] said it was a temporary gig,” Kneale wrote. "Was hoping they'd forgotten.”
They didn't.
