‘That Whole Thing Was a Joke?!’ CNBC Anchors Busted Live Falling for Howard Stern Prank

CNBC Squawk Box anchors broke the major media news that Howard Stern had left SiriusXM and was being replaced by BravoTV and fellow Sirius show host Andy Cohen. The thing is, they had not yet realized that the whole thing was a hoax cooked up by the famous and influential shock jock, and were forced to correct the record in real time.

At 7 a.m. Monday, the time at which Stern was due to come back,  Cohen was seated in the chair usually occupied by Stern. And in a somber monologue, Cohen announced that Stern and the satellite radio network have gone their separate ways — amid reports of contract drama. A number of outlets, including AP, took the bait and reported it as fact.

“Howard and the executive team at SiriusXM felt that it was best to kind of part ways now,” Cohen said, which seemed confirmed on social media by the official Stern show account:

Squawk Box regulars Andrew Ross Sorkin and Becky Quick dutifully broke the news in the context of it being major media news with the gravity that could have seriously cratered the SiriusXM stock price.

Fortunately for shareholders, however, the ruse was promptly corrected when Quick interrupted the conversation saying “Was the Howard Stern thing was a joke? He trolled viewers with a gag that Andy Cohen had taken over his slot.”

“That whole thing was a joke?!” Sorkin added.

No, it wasn’t just viewers who fell for the gag.

To be fair, both anchors handled the potentially embarrassing moment with grace, humor and humility. There is a long list of august media outlets that fell for the ruse, however savvier media outlets, like dear old Mediaite dot com, knew better and reported the story accurately.

One day, maybe, CNBC an AP can aspire to Mediaite’s platinum level journalistic standards. Until then, they can only try to do better.

Watch above via CNBC.