Jack & Jill Politics

The network, popular among the market obsessed, has come under intense scrutiny in recent weeks for what critics claim is a propensity to cheerlead Wall Street. Occasionally brash commentary on White House policy by hosts Jim Cramer and Rick Santelli did little to help CNBC’s cause among progressives. A few weeks ago, a group of leading progressives and economists penned an open letter demanding that the network modify its mission.

Since the launch of FixCNBC.com, the network has, in fact, made several programming changes. Former DNC Chair Howard Dean was brought on as a regular commentator, and Huffington Post editor-in-chief Arianna Huffington guest hosted CNBC’s morning show Squawk Box last week.

Big up to Adam Green, Katie Halper, Negin Farsad, Jeff Kreisler, Lee Camp and everyone else involved in the http://fixcnbc.com program. This was actually fun to do. The video doesn’t reveal all the footage we got, but you get a slice.

Based on my experience, I’d say half the people we approached had no comment and were in a rush. Another 20 percent thought CNBC was just there for entertainment and didn’t take it seriously but conceded that it could be damaging. Another 20 percent thought it was a market-pumping, completely biased and useless network. Ten percent loved it.