TLDR: this episode is a demonstration of how CNBC is aware of and sensitive to conversations that are happening among GameStop investors on Reddit, even though they continue to pretend that superstonk doesn’t exist and that all discussions on Reddit about the stock market are happening exclusively on wallstreetbets.

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On August 29 2022, there was a post on Superstonk of a clip from CNBC, where the host (Joe Kernan) abruptly ends the segment when the guest (Kristen Bitterly) mentions “shorts covering”.

Joe Kernan: “Kristen you, I think, are in the camp that you weren’t fooled by that summer rally, in terms of a new bull – do you think it’s a rally within a bear market?”

Kristen Bitterly: “We thought it was a bear market rally, when you look at what really was driving that rally there were a couple of different things, right, so the first was a lot of short covering, and when you look, there was that concept of did we actually…”

Joe Kernan: “Kristen we – I’m sorry, but I’ve been told we’ve got to go immediately, we’ve got some issues, thank you. Squawk on the street’s gonna be getting straight ahead. Thank you Kristen, we’ll have you back.”

Kristen Bitterly: smiles incredulously

This post by itself was an interesting example of behavior by CNBC that seemed to demonstrate a neurotic discomfort due to the guest discussing “short covering”.

What was perhaps even more significant, was CNBC’s reaction to the reality that this clip was being discussed. The CNBC segment that followed the very next day on August 30, 2022, in which CNBC hosts Joe Kernan and Melissa Lee try to explain away this behavior by CNBC that was being discussed on “Reddit”.

Alongside a chyron that reads: “Reddit and weep; abrupt goodbye triggers conspiracy theories,” the paid actors of a prominent financial media propaganda outlet complain for 2 minutes about people on Reddit taking things out of context.

Joe Kernan: “…I said it was a sad commentary yesterday, but [reddit users] will take a – they will take that 20 seconds where I said ‘we’ve got to go, to break’, which, and I explained, to everyone: audio problems, no cameras at the --”

Melissa Lee: “It doesn’t matter.”

Joe Kernan: “None of that matters.”

Melissa Lee: "Because they don’t see – they don’t see the actual product. Many people online – "

Joe Kernan: “All they see is something that’s shared.”

Melissa Lee: " – they see the clip, and the clip goes viral, and you don’t go to the original source, just the clip"

Joe Kernan: “And this all goes back to… Melvin Capital or something, and shorts, and, all she was doing was making a generic point – someone was in my ear, I didn’t even hear her point, she was making a generic point…”

Putting aside the claim that Joe Kernan explained to everyone that they were having “audio problems” and “no cameras at the --”, which he in fact did not explain in the original clip, where on Reddit were these conspiracy theories being discussed? Which subreddits? While they normally claim wallstreetbets, in this instance, it was unspecified.

There was the post on superstonk with about 1.7k comments, and there was the post on wallstreetbets with about 800 comments. Despite that there was more than twice as much activity in the superstonk thread, and despite that it was posted in superstonk more than 2 hours before the post in wallstreetbets, because it was posted in both subreddits, CNBC could plausibly pretend, as usual, that when they mention “Reddit”, they were referring to wallstreetbets and not the GME investor subreddit that shall never be acknowledged to exist.

It would, however, be foolish to believe that CNBC and other organizations are somehow very aware and sensitive to conversations that are happening on wallstreetbets but at the same time not aware of and sensitive to even larger conversations happening on superstonk.

They use wallstreetbets as cover to explain away whatever those zany Reddit kids are up to on any particular day of the week while continuing their deliberate media blackout of GameStop investors on superstonk and anything at all about DRS.

For example, if you go to CNBC.com and search for “wallstreetbets”, you will get 312 search results. If you search for “superstonk”, you will get zero results.

(Screenshots taken on September 18, 2023)

Superstonk? never heard of it.

Interestingly, also on August 30 2022, CNBC invited guest Kristen Bitterly back on to the show for some further damage control (superstonk thread, wsb thread), to pick up where they left off after the supposed technical issues,

Joe Kernan: “… now, I had asked you about the bear market uh rally that we saw, you started by saying ‘I still believe it was a bear uh market, it’s a bear market that we’re in, and that was a rally’, and you started ticking off some reasons for it and the first one I think you cited was short covering. So, – now at that point we went to uh, you know we had to go to break, immediately, I mean it was unbelievable, but, let’s just start there. You said one of the reasons is short covering. Expound please, and go as long as you want about short covering. As long as you want. You can go to 7.”

Kristen Bitterly: “Absolutely” proceeds to spend the next several minutes talking about the market and glossing over short covering