CNBC slashing budget; staff "scared s---less.”

Erin Burnett is obsessed with Art Hogan's bottom.

Hogan, the market analyst at investment advisor Jefferies & Co., often appears on CNBC's Squawk on the Street, the show Burnett co-hosts with veteran anchor Mark Haines from the CNBC studios at the New York Stock Exchange. Hogan may be something of a hunk, and Burnett is rather mischievous, but the “bottom” in this case is the trader's prediction that the Dow would stop falling and rest at a low of 7,800.

The double entendre is one of Burnett's running gags but the bottom is in fact worth watching. It's another day in the economic tsunami, featuring some corporate irony: One day earlier, the Big Three auto executives flew their corporate jets to Washington to beg Congress for help. And the market is now careering toward another record low.

As Squawk heads toward a break, Burnett wonders aloud how many hits a keyword search for “Hogan's bottom” would yield. “It depends on what magazines you're reading,” offers Art Cashin, grizzled trader and director of floor operations for UBS.

The conversation continues after the break. Now seated behind the Squawk anchor desk, Burnett says: “There were 2½ million hits on Google for 'Hogan's bottom.' I just thought you'd like to know that.”

Trying to suppress a grin, Haines adds: “Art Hogan is really glad his bottom hasn't been violated.”

This kind of ribald humor is tolerated—even encouraged—on CNBC. The network is understandably seeing record ratings, thanks to everyone from anxious office drones to stay-at-home moms who wouldn't necessarily know the Libor (London Interbank Offered Rate) from a Labrador, all tuning in to monitor the nation's financial meltdown—and its effect on the value of their 401(k) accounts.

While the gallows humor continues, CNBC isn't exactly laughing all the way to the bank. Despite the yuks and the huge numbers, the network is now in the process of slashing as much as 10% from its budget. People at the network, says one staffer, “are scared s---less.”

More: http://www.broadcastingcable.com/CA6618023.html

 

If they're slashing their budget how the hell did Gaparino get his own "I am CNBC" promo?

and...looks like the marketers targeting people who need to reuse catheters are still dishing out ad money....