[via Media Matters] Brit Hume, Washington Managing Editor for FOX News on the London bombings in conversation with newscaster Shepard Smith:
SMITH: Some of the things you might expect to happen, for instance,
a drop in the stock market and some degree of uncertainty across this
country — none of that really seen today, and I wonder if the timing
of it — that it happened in the middle of the night and we were able
to get a sense of the grander scheme of things — wasn’t helpful in all
this.
HUME: Well, maybe. The other thing is, of course, people have — you
know, the market was down. It was down yesterday, and you know, you may
have had some bargain-hunting going on. I mean, my first thought
when I heard — just on a personal basis, when I heard there had been
this attack and I saw the futures this morning, which were really in
the tank, I thought, “Hmmm, time to buy.”
[Quickly realizes what he’s said]
Uhmmm…others may have thought
that as well. But…uh…you never know about the markets.
I do try to keep the swearing down on this blog, but geez, what a fucking scumbag!
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wasn't it in Fahrenheit 911 when someone said the same thing?
this guy was just stupid enough to get it published.
Unfortunately, this guy's comments are no more original than they are sensitive.
The original version of this was apparently attributed to Baron von Rothschild during the Napoleonic Wars
"Buy when there is blood in the streets"
Which, although can be taken too literally, is usally understood to mean to invest in the times of greatest uncertainty.
- Eldon
You take an offhand comment *way* too seriously. He's just a talking head. Relax. Why is the guy a 'scumbag' for having a natural reaction? There's no malice in the comment. If he's a scumbag for thinking it's an opportunity to buy, what does that make everyone who sells in the market? Give me a break with the knee jerk reactions.
No, you give me a break with your knee-jerk defence of Hume. People reveal themselves more truthfully in their offhand comments than in scripted, edited and rehearsed statements.
Too true, Joey. But I'm too jaded now to do more than shrug. I no longer find it amazing that an elitist, heartless shill like that has fans. I doubt they even caught the 'slip.'
We agree that the presenter reveals himself truthfully in his offhand comment.
Where we disagree obviously is in the reaction. I don't see how having that thought makes him a scumbag. It articulates the same thought process that every person in the market would have. "I understand the scope of the event -- now what shall I do with the information?" Every business article that ran the next day discussed how the attack only resulted in a minor dip, and how the markets recovered. Does that make every journalist who had the same analysis on the phenomenon a 'scumbag'?
He said he thought it was 'time to buy'. If anything, that is a positive, optimistic statement. He expressed confidence in the intrinsic value of the market. How does that make him a scumbag? Would you think he was a hero if his reaction had been, "Abandon all hope, it's time to sell everything you've got"?
Perhaps you're trying to cast the comment as insensitive. But relating a dispassionate view of events is part of journalism.
As an aside to the other commenter, I'm not a fan of Brit Hume. I have never heard of Brit Hume prior to seeing the clip in Joey's post. Any scumbagginess exhibited by Brit Hume in other broadcasts by him I am not taking into account, because I have never seen him before. Whether he is or is not an elitist shill is something I can't judge.