This morning on Squawk Box, Representatives Connie Mack and Frederica Wilson (R and D of Florida respectively) appeared to discuss their state’s primary and the status of the 2012 race as a whole. Mack, a self admitted Mitt Romney supporter, explained why he thought his candidate of choice was the only one able to get us off “the road to Greece,” while Wilson explained that President Obama was “the education President” and…oh, who gives a crap. None of the viewers watching could hear anything they said over the sound of Wilson’s hat. Seriously, what is up with that hat?

Did the folks at Squawk Box have a really bad experience in Europe or something? Did they find half a worm in a croissant? Did they find themselves on the set of Hostel 3: More Of This Nonsense? Whatever happened, it seems to have left a lasting impact as, during a segment this morning, Europe received quite a beating.

There’s really nothing constructive that can be said here. In fact, this whole thing is downright juvenile. But we’re allowed to laugh, so here’s a fun little gem that showed up on CNBC this week. Analyst Stephen Weiss was giving his stock recommendations, and he was talking about how the weather could affect retail sales.

We don’t usually get into the CNBC ratings, but it’s hard to ignore the performance of the network’s Your Money, Your Vote debate on Wednesday night. Not only did the debate’s ratings best every other show in prime time, it actually got stronger in its second hour, increasing from 947,000 viewers in the 25-54 year-old [...]

After Wednesday night’s GOP debate on CNBC, candidate Herman Cain was asked about the booing that took place when he was asked about the allegations against him, as well as his decision to refer to Nancy Pelosi as “Princess Nancy.”

Rick Perry has become famous for his poor debate performances, which contributed largely to his fall from the top of the GOP polls, but he has topped himself tonight. With a good head of steam going answering a question from Caterpillar CEO Douglas R. Oberhelman, Perry ground to a halt as he tried to explain the three government agencies he would eliminate. “Let me tell you, it’s three agencies that are gone when I get there. Commerce, Education, and the um, what’s the third one there?”

After twenty or so minutes of calm debate on the economy, Wednesday night’s CNBC Republican Presidential Debate turned ugly, as moderators Maria Bartiromo and John Harwood asked embattled frontrunner Herman Cain about the sexual harassment allegations being leveled at him, then followed by asking Mitt Romney if he would have retained Cain as a CEO in one of his businesses. The debate crowd booed both questions loudly.

Twenty-One people won’t be showing up to work at the Milk Street Cafe on Wednesday, and it’s not an act of solidarity with the Occupy Oakland general strike. The owner of the eatery, Marc Epstein, told FOX News that he had to lay off the workers because business has hit a wall. The culprit? Occupy Wall Street.

Rick Perry, man. Bless his heart. The GOP presidential hopeful just seemingly refuses to filter or censor himself for the media, which results in such gems as Perry telling CNBC that it’s “fun” to keep the so-called birther controversy over Barack Obama‘s country of origin going.

CNBC’s Jim Cramer reported Friday morning on Squawk on the Street that he’s hearing from business leaders off-camera that Obama is hated by business leaders. “The disdain is off the charts! This guy, he is hated like Jimmy Carter!” Cramer’s candid insight came after news from anchor Melissa Lee that there was a sadness about the economy from many traders and about how The Conference Board said there was a 45% chance of the US going into recession.

On Thursday’s edition of Squawk Box, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman and CNBC’s Rick Santelli traded epithets over whether Social Security was a Ponzi scheme as Governor Rick Perry has argued. “Your question is idiotic,” fumed Friedman, when asked whether Social Security was a type of pyramid scheme. “You’re idiotic!” responded Santelli. The heated [...]

Well it appears that the market volatility of late has not abated – it has in fact seemed to have gotten worse. Much worse even. The stock market opened this morning with almost a 500 point nose dive, with financial and bank stocks taking the brunt of the damage. Financial news isn’t really Mediaite’s bailiwick, however the financial news network’s coverage certainly falls within our purview. And perhaps the only silver lining in this looming dark cloud is that it can, on occasion, produce some good teevee. Take for example CNBC’s Jim Cramer who took great exception with a Bear Stearns comment made by his CNBC cohort Simon Hobbs.

Fox Business News has bought ads on Time Warner Cable that directly criticize CNBC’s lacking coverage of the U.S. credit downgrade over a week ago.

News Corp. chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch wants you to know his Fox Business Network’s not losing money anymore. On an earnings call Wednesday, Murdoch described the four-year old business channel as reaching “cash break even” status–not losing money, but not making money either. At the time of FBN’s 2007 launch, the network projected breaking even within five years, so executives see the milestone as a victory even as CNBC continues to dominate the cable business news niche. “Fox Business has made great strides,” News Corp. president Chase Carey said on the earnings call.

Would-be pretender to the Tea Party throne Rick Santelli took to the airwaves to trash another monarch today on CNBC: King George III, who he brought back from the dead to compare to a banking analyst that dismissed the Tea Party as “freaked out white men who are unemployed.” Railing about the importance of the Founding Fathers, he left analyst Meredith Whitney asking herself, “What have I done to you?”

CNBC’s Rick Santelli is considered by many to be the “Father of the Tea Party” and this morning he forcefully defended his “baby” from various attacks. Insisting that it was embarrassing to see the Obama administration blame everyone and everything for the S&P downgrade, Santelli instead demanded to know when a real leader will stand up and tackle the big problems in our economy?

On CNBC, the decision by Standard and Poors to downgrade America’s AAA status got some support from PIMCO managing director Neel Kashkari, who said on Squawk Box that until Republicans and Democrats show an ounce of backbone and actually do what is in the interest of the American people, rather their what is in their own immediate political interests, I can’t argue with S&P’s conclusion.”

According to a report in POLITICO, CNBC has ended its weekend international show World Business, after a blog claimed the show’s independent producers, FBC Media, had a contract designed to boost the image of Malaysian politicians. FBC, a London-based production company, reportedly produced “puff pieces” as a part of the contract. “In light of serious questions raised last week, CNBC immediately initiated an examination of FBC and its business practices and has withdrawn the program World Business indefinitely,” Brian Steel, senior vice president of media relations at CNBC, told POLITICO.

The opinion news media (and, ahem, those who cover it) have experienced something of a love/hate relationship to the debt crisis. On the one hand, it’s nearly impossible to create engaging, insightful commentary on the fact that something is still not happening. But, then again, the opinion news machine is nothing if not creative in what it elects to report on and the narratives spun out of these headlines. So let’s take a moment and analyze those in the media who came out on top in their coverage of the debt discussions, be that coverage straightforward reporting or subjective analysis, and those who dropped the ball somewhere along the way.

On CNBC’s Squawk Box this morning, John Harwood seemed both far too tired to engage in jokes comparing members of the Tea Party to “terrorists” and quite convinced that voters, before too long, will forget the debt deal that will likely go to President Obama today. “It will be forgotten by voters pretty quickly,” said Harwood. “Everybody took a hit. It was not good for President Obama. It wasn’t good for John Boehner. But at the end of the day, they got something done. Remember, John Boehner knew as soon as he became Speaker after the election that this issue in particular was going to be like waterboarding for him. Because he–you had the impulses of his newly elected members and many conservatives in his caucus, everybody in Congress hates the debt ceiling. Everyone. But he knew that it had to pass eventually.”

In an interview on CNBC this morning, Donald Trump described the weekend debt deal as “a joke” that ultimately doesn’t solve the nation’s economic problems. Trump told Squawk Box‘s Joe Kernan “eventually you have to balance the budget, and this is a long way from balancing the budget, it’s a joke. It’s a down payment at best.” Trump said President Obama did get something “that was fantastic…because he got the deal past the election…the fact is, if this were going on sometime prior to the election, he would have zero chance of re-election.”

In an interview with Adweek‘s Brian Braiker, CNN managing editor Mark Whitaker describes his vision for the future of the news network. Simply put, it’s not just about breaking news, but it will probably look a lot like Anderson Cooper. “I think we’re in a day and age when you can have all the qualities of a great journalist but have a human side as well, and even a sense of humor. In many ways Anderson Cooper is the model that we increasingly are going to, not that everyone has to be Anderson Cooper.”

The former CNBC anchor Erin Burnett made her debut on CNN last night, appearing with Wolf Blitzer in the hour leading up to President Obama‘s speech to the nation on the debt ceiling impasse. After a welcome to “CNN’s newest anchor” (Burnett’s as yet untitled show will premiere in the 7 p.m. timeslot in September), Burnett got right down to breaking some news. Asked about the differences between plans advanced by Democrats and Republicans, Burnett said “in the short term, either deal probably will be enough, although really interesting this afternoon, Wolf, when I was talking to an investor who had met with the ratings agency Standard & Poor’s, talking about the potential of a downgrade– which, by the way, could raise interest rates, just the same way a potential default could–and they said the Boehner plan probably wouldn’t hit the hurdle to prevent a downgrade.”

On this morning’s edition of CNBC’s Squawk Box, discussion turned to the News of the World phone hacking scandal that has embroiled News Corp. when host Joe Kernen took an interesting tack. His claim: that some on the left see a culture of corruption infesting other News Corp. entities. In Kernen’s view, “liberals think that [...]

CNBC is reporting tonight that News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch–who’s due to testify in the News of the World phone hacking scandal before the British Parliament Tuesday–is “considering” stepping down as the company’s CEO. He would be replaced, CNBC reports, by COO Chase Carey.

Bloomberg, citing individuals “with knowledge of the situation” describes the elevation of Carey as something News Corp., not Murdoch, is considering.