• 22 Jul 2009 at 4:26 PM

Understanding Dennis Kneale

Picture 1791.pngEver watch CNBC, previously around around lunch (before he was put on what appears to be a permanent time-out) or, for reasons you cannot explain, past 8PM and wonder what happened to this bespectacled fellow, screeching about the recession being over and “digital dickweeds” and god knows what else and thought, what happened to this guy in childhood, or adolescence, or a previous life that made him the way he is today? It has to have been something horrific, right? You can’t just be born like this, can you? It turns out the answers are yes and yes.
In a NYO profile of Kneale, we find out a whole bunch of stuff about DK, including the fact that his father that his father was hit by a car and killed, when Dennis was 14 years-old. The tragedy changed a young Kneale, who became “more outgoing and pugnacious.” A bully, basically. A nerdy, nerdy bully. “When [a sudden death] happens, you’re like, well, fuck,” Kneale says. “There’s nothing you can do anymore that’s going to even come close to that. It’s like, ‘Bring it on. What have you got?’” Other things we’ve learned about DK today:
* His mother always told him, “Don’t say something if you can’t say it to somebody’s face.” She probably meant something more along the lines of what most mothers tell their children, i.e. if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it at all, but Dennis interpreted Mother Kneale’s words to mean if you’re in front of them, or they can see your lips moving through the tube, fire away.
* DK very much took this bit of wisdom to heart, which I guess would explain the rationale of being proud, decades later, of the fact that he wrote a scathing take-down of his high school’s chorus concert with his own by-line. “I wrote the mean review on the record,” said Kneale. “Not anonymously.”
* He really, really hates people who write anonymously online, because it often creates victims of vicious, masked attacks. Like this girl, who truly was made a victim, and like Dennis Kneale, who is not a victim, but believes people taking issue with the claim the “recession is over” are attacking him.

Mr. Kneale traces his genuine distaste for anonymous online criticism to a cover story he edited at Forbes in the fall of 2007, titled “Hiding Behind the Net.” The article, by Victoria Murphy Barret, revolved around the tragic story of a teenage girl who crashes her father’s Porsche at high speeds on the highway, crushing her to death. Afterward, a mob of anonymous Web users posted police photographs of the girl’s mangled remains on various Internet sites, along with commentary mocking the carnage.
“And Google is allowing that to happen?” said Kneale. “Because, oh, well, that’s the blogosphere, they’re anonymous. You know what? How dare you? How dare you hurt people like that?”

* He could be even more obnoxious, if he wasn’t holding himself back. “I have a high obnoxious quotient. I try and reign it in.”
* He’s being produced by people who think he’s a genius. “After [the night DK called a bunch of bloggers 'digital dickweeds'], Mr. Kneale’s producer told him that his outburst was poetry, the best thing he’d done on the show.”


* None of this is for publicity. Pay no attention to the fact that most people were unaware DK was doing the nighttime thing until the hernia-inducing meltdown, when in fact he’d been in the slot since April. Mr. Kneale said his beef with anonymous bloggers was not some phony yelp for attention. “This is not an attempt by me to stand out,” said Mr. Kneale.
* This gig is still probationary. “Now they’ve kind of forgotten that it’s just a tryout,” said Kneale. “Don’t tell them. … It may not last.”

Comments (82)

  1. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 4:33 PM

    Mr. Dennis Kneale molested my collie and didn’t even say please. He has no manners whatsoever.

  2. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 4:35 PM

    how are the google hits on “dennis kneale idiot” coming?

  3. Posted by e_anthony58 | July 22, 2009 at 4:35 PM

    I ain’t hiding.
    LOOK ME UP, DENIS! HELP ME GET A JOB WHILE YOU’RE AT IT!
    Wonder when the next Townhall meeting will be at HQ.

  4. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 4:36 PM

    Kneale I want my goddamned collie back. You still owe me for her vet bills, douche.

  5. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 4:37 PM

    Meep, meep, meep

  6. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 4:37 PM

    WTF?

  7. Posted by NAS Keflavik boi | July 22, 2009 at 4:37 PM

    The geeky visage sez “KICK ME!”;
    The whiny, voice -racking use of the term “dickweed” on live TV cries “I was the wedgie king of my junior high”…

  8. Posted by NAS Keflavik boi | July 22, 2009 at 4:37 PM

    The geeky visage sez “KICK ME!”;
    The whiny, voice cracking use of the term “dickweed” on live TV cries “I was the wedgie king of my junior high”…

  9. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 4:38 PM

    @7/8 nice

  10. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 4:38 PM

    i really, really hate this guy.

  11. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 4:39 PM

    “he could be even more obnoxious”? challenge

  12. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 4:39 PM

    5:1 this thread gets more posts than even the thieving banker-chick with the huge floppies from yesterday

  13. Posted by merkin capital partners | July 22, 2009 at 4:40 PM

    @5 exactly.

  14. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 4:42 PM

    @12 nah, that chick was loathsome and slutty. DK is just loathsome.

  15. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 4:43 PM

    Off topic, but does Gasparino Twitter? Because it sounds like a magical combination.

  16. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 4:45 PM

    Kudlow needs to order a Code Red on his malformed cranium.

  17. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 4:45 PM

    his father wasn’t hit by the car, he threw himself in front of it after one of Dennis’ temper tantrums.

  18. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 4:46 PM

    Dude looks like a muppet

  19. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 4:47 PM

    Dennis Kneale sports a less that fashinsble 1″ cock. Despite his diminutive stature and his ‘road-runner’ good looks, he does put his member to good use on pets of the canine persuasion.
    Just make sure you lock up your doggies whenever he’s around.

  20. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 4:48 PM

    The producer’s comment that the outburst was the best thing he’s done sounds like an indictment to me.

  21. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 4:49 PM

    @17 FTW!!!!

  22. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 4:50 PM

    @22 yep.

  23. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 4:50 PM

    I have an idea. Let’s put Dennis on the air with 8 guests simultaneously. Then we’ll put everyone on mute except Dennis and tell him to scream at everyone. It’ll be brilliant!

  24. Posted by IBNR | July 22, 2009 at 4:50 PM

    Dennis Kneale…blah blah father died…dickweed blah blah…Forbes Technology Editor blah blah… gayest recession call ever…YAWN

  25. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 4:53 PM

    I like that he tries to garner sympathy with that story about the dead girl. fucking prick.

  26. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 4:53 PM

    CNBC is on past 7 pm?
    /unaware

  27. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 4:53 PM

    Christ, that picture of his face is painful to my eyes.

  28. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 4:53 PM

    @17… eessh, little harsh
    @14, stole a 100k… could have gone ahead and gotten a nose job? THAT would have been money. Could have danced her debts off.

  29. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 4:55 PM

    Dennis Kneale is infested with asslobsters.

  30. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 4:56 PM

    @26 that girl’s mangled body/car wreck was more intended as a metaphor of his time on CNBC

  31. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 4:56 PM

    I can’t believe I gave birth to this guy.
    -Mother Kneale

  32. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 5:00 PM

    @29 it’s the cumulative response to all the nonsense i’ve heard him say.
    -17

  33. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 5:01 PM

    Dennis Kneales down to…molest collies.

  34. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 5:04 PM

    DK,
    The anon bloggers may anger you, but you really have no legal standing to go after them.
    So live with it.

  35. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 5:06 PM

    I think that the green shoots are what one should expect after eating at CG’s house.
    I tolerate Larry the K’s green shoot nonsense only b/c he worked at the Fed, worked for Moynihan and worked at the OMB; in other words he has at least some credibility.
    However I cannot take seriously a journalism major who’s opus is membership in the The Independent Florida Alligator Hall of Fame.
    You’d think that, as a card carrying HoF reporter, he’d take seriously his obligation to strive for responsible journalism and avoid opinionated rhetoric.
    Dennis Kneale, what a complete idiot douche.
    @2, that makes it 36,301.

  36. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 5:06 PM

    Hats off to the Observer for another A list interview.

  37. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 5:07 PM

    Dennis, was this picture taken before or after the plastic surgery?

  38. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 5:11 PM

    His face and neck just kind of melt into one entity in the vicinity of the chin for normal people.

  39. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 5:11 PM

    The bottom line is that Dennis plays the “stupid anonymous bloggers!” card because he has no other way to slam what he perceives as attacks on his character (they’re actually attacks on your intelligence, and your retarded, baseless claims, a la “the recession is over”).
    feel free to cite this comment in tonight’s show.

  40. Posted by highlyconfident | July 22, 2009 at 5:12 PM

    If I knew that Dennis Kneale would have used my story to carry a torch for his journalistic ambitions and eventually appear on television I would have driven a little more cautiously.
    -Dead Girl

  41. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 5:13 PM

    anyone else think he was the poster of the previous comments he cited from DB? they were not of the usual flavor, seemed a bit Knealey

  42. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 5:13 PM

    @41 fucked up but good

  43. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 5:15 PM

    He has a face made for print journalism.

  44. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 5:16 PM

    @42 huh? you’re saying DK planted comments calling him a dbag on dealbreaker?

  45. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 5:20 PM

    @45. no, the comments he selected were not incredibly clever, little on the lame side.
    -42

  46. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 5:21 PM

    i continue to marvel at the irony that people who (anonymously) post on this website call other people geeky. and that includes bess. if she exists why no pictures?

  47. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 5:23 PM

    Me & Dennis did A2M at neverland ranch in the early 90s.
    -Michael Jackson

  48. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 5:23 PM

    @47 and dennis kneale has arrived!

  49. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 5:23 PM

    DK needs to be put in a burlap sack and beaten with reeds

  50. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 5:23 PM

    @47 bess doesn’t “anonymously” post you dumb fuck.

  51. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 5:23 PM

    @47
    Bess is real. She’s from joysee. She doesn’t want any pics because of stalkers like you.

  52. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 5:24 PM

    I love it. Here he is, air-punching the ““frig-tard” nobodies, and cretins” when what we’d really like to see is him live up to his mother’s credo, ‘Don’t say something if you can’t say it to somebody’s face,’”
    Let’s see you say some things you’ve been wanting to say to our Charlie. Let’s see what happens when Gaspo comes jumping out of his octobox at you more furiously than a high school choir director.
    Yeah, Dennis, that’s right. It’s easy to pick a fight with anonymous bloggers whom you’ll never see face of, but try doing it to someone you know exists. You’ll get your janettavakoli knocked right out of you, Buster.

  53. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 5:27 PM

    @53
    stop it, tears are flowing…

  54. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 5:27 PM

    @47 it’s not irony you’re marveling at (nothing ironic about what you’re describing), retard. go prepare your green shoots monologue.

  55. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 5:30 PM

    Janet is the name Dennis uses in drag

  56. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 5:33 PM

    Dennis Kneale if you are reading, this is a college kid posting…. if you rushed for our frat we’d make you eat donkey shit for 5 days and have the freshmen beat the shit out of you for the rest of rush month, and still not let you in b/c you are a looser.

  57. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 5:38 PM

    @57. Well, I’m not interested in your gay frat anyway, thank you very much! I have never once chosen to rent my friends (or had many for that matter) and would not start today. Especially from some anonymous douche who has so little intellect that he cannot even spell the word ‘loser’
    Dennis

  58. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 5:39 PM

    Dennis, the safety word is “papaya.” Say it on air or the beatings will continue until morale improves.

  59. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 5:39 PM

    @5 – I just shat myself

  60. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 5:42 PM

    He also knows nothing about finance. Did anyone notice the other night when he and three other conservatives were debating the (incredibly meek) liberal that he said:
    “Do you even know what VaR is? It’s Variable Risk that these banks are taking.”
    I love ironic condescension; VaR stands for Value at Risk…

  61. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 5:44 PM

    @61. yeah, that was a gem!

  62. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 5:50 PM

    no comment.

  63. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 5:50 PM

    @57/Dennis….. I have enough intellect to know the recession isn’t over. On the flip side, I can’t take you seriously, you majored in the joke curriculum known as journalism at a joke institution called The University of Florida.

  64. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 5:50 PM

    @61 are you serious? god. fucking asshole.

  65. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 5:59 PM

    VaR = veiled assinine rationalization.

  66. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 6:01 PM

    @65… Very serious. No one called him out on it because: A) None of the liberals they pick to be on CNBC know anything about finance (except David Min, who can rip anyone, including Kudlow, to shreds) and B) The one person who disagreed with him was outnumbered 4:1.
    -61

  67. Posted by wcburrs87 | July 22, 2009 at 6:03 PM

    Bang a chocollie with Dennis Kneale!
    Snickers Ad Manager

  68. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 6:03 PM

    @64 Listen, fucktard. First, you’re not going to ever know the recession is over until many months after the fact. So, if you’re waiting for the NBER to tell you what to think you might want to take a nap in the meantime. Secondly, I can’t take you seriously either. Maybe it’s your association with people who would make someone each shit while having underlings beat them up. At the end of the day, know this: I have a career and you’re exiting college in a cratered economy. Maybe I’ll let you suck my 1 inch dick (if this site is to be correct) to pay the bills. And you want to bash UF? Where did you go? FSU?

  69. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 6:12 PM

    Dennis Kneale is German for “whale’s vagina”

  70. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 6:15 PM

    @68 HILARIOUS! I’m just sad that you posted so late and not that many people will get to read that gem (and of the ones who do, I’m afraid a bunch won’t understand). Well done though…

  71. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 6:38 PM

    @69/Dennis….
    1. I go to one of the most prestigious schools around
    2. I’ll be working for my dad’s fund, and watching Bloomberg during the day.

  72. Posted by Porker Stankleberry | July 22, 2009 at 6:49 PM

    Wow. What a cartoonishly long forehead he has.
    Either that or he’s a Low-Clops.

  73. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 7:03 PM

    @72. Note: SUNY-Albany is only prestigious in Albany. To your second point, do you ever get the feeling daddy gave you the job offer in an attempt to soften the blow that you would never make in life on your own? Again, Maybe I’ll let you suck my dick if things don’t work out. You’d probably be good at that. You know, with your frat rushing days and all.
    DK

  74. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 8:57 PM

    That face could scare maggots off of roadkill at a mile away.

  75. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 9:16 PM

    @75 looks like someone from a Wes Craven movie

  76. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 9:38 PM

    He looks like the grandmother of my co-worker in that photo

  77. Posted by guest | July 22, 2009 at 11:43 PM

    “CAR PEOOOPLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE”
    - Jeff Macke falling into a bottomless pit, never to be seen or heard from again

  78. Posted by guest | July 23, 2009 at 12:51 AM

    Is this the same guy that does the cell phone commercials?

  79. Posted by Seaman Bodine II | July 23, 2009 at 6:58 AM

    that explains his glory holing without a rubber in the meat packing district
    bring it on baby, SIDA and all

  80. Posted by guest | July 23, 2009 at 8:31 AM

    The only thing obnoxious about this man is his forehead. Ahh!

  81. Posted by guest | July 23, 2009 at 10:57 AM
  82. Posted by NotNasser | July 24, 2009 at 1:09 PM

    #61, and anyone,
    Is there a YouTube clip or the like of that “VaR means Variable risk” moment?

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