By Jeff Poor | October 9, 2007 | 8:17 PM EDT

It was supposed to be about business and economic issues – at least that’s the way CNBC billed it. “[W]ell, we’re coming to you from the Ford Performing Arts Center,” co-moderator Maria Bartiromo said during the October 9 CNBC “Closing Bell.” “And there’s a lot of buzz and excitement around. We're just about an hour away from the debate and of course, this is the first national presidential debate focused only on economic issues.

By Matthew Sheffield | October 9, 2007 | 3:20 PM EDT

The GOP presidential candidates will be debating this afternoon at 4:00pm Eastern. This will be the first debate in which Fred Thompson will be participating.Discuss the debate on this thread or (if you are a registered NB user), join the live chat here.

By Noel Sheppard | September 19, 2007 | 10:32 AM EDT

In case you were out of the country and missed it, the Federal Reserve on Tuesday surprisingly cut two key interest rates by a half percentage point - twice what most analysts expected - causing one of the largest one-day rallies on Wall Street in years.

Yet, the folks on the "NBC Nightly News" seemed a tad unhappy with the Fed's move, as anchor Brian Williams wondered "is it good for everyone," and correspondent Kevin Tibbles cautioned, "But experts say beware of the downside of any economic upturn."

I kid you not.

The News began Tuesday evening mostly with the positive side of the rate cut, bringing in CNBC's Maria Bartiromo to discuss the day's events on Wall Street. However, as Williams introduced Bartiromo, he foreshadowed the gloom to come (video available here, h/t NB reader Tim O'Donnell):

By Julia A. Seymour | August 15, 2007 | 5:52 PM EDT

As the stock market went up and down over the past few weeks, media coverage also bounced from end-of-the-world rhetoric to rational analysis.CNBC’s Jim Cramer went on an impassioned rant August 6 calling for the Fed to reduce interest rates.

“Bernanke needs to open the discount window. That is how bad things are out there … in the fixed income markets we have Armageddon,” said Cramer on “Stop Trading!” Following Cramers’ rant, NBC brought him on “Today” to analyze the economy August 10.

NBC’s Meredith Vieira asked “Are the markets about to crash?” on the August 10 “Today” show.Contrast that with CNN's Ali Velshi on August 13: