Out of Touch Lauer Wonders if Wall St Glitch Caused by Someone Pushing Wrong 'Typewriter' Key

Geoffrey Dickens

May 7, 2010 - 10:47am

When was the last time any one used a typewriter? Well on Friday's Today show, in talking with CNBC's Jim Cramer and Maria Bartiromo, in what has to be a classic out of touch moment, Lauer flashed back to the '70s when he asked if yesterday's market drop was caused by someone hitting the "wrong key on a typewriter." Later on, after perhaps being informed by his producer that no one is using an IBM Selectric [1] any more, Lauer used the more updated terminology of "keyboard." [video below the fold] [audio available here [2]]

The following exchange was aired on the May 7 Today show:

MATT LAUER: I don't want this glitch go by because I still don't understand it to be quite honest. Was there a glitch or wasn't there a glitch? Did someone hit the wrong key on a typewriter?

JIM CRAMER: There was definitely a glitch. It's interesting. We've heard from the CEO of the New York Stock Exchange. You would think that, that would be the only place we would know things. There are exchanges all over the country. We are not able to pinpoint exactly what went wrong.

LAUER: But shouldn't there be a record of this? I mean if someone actually hit the wrong key on a keyboard it would be recorded somewhere and couldn't we go and check?

-Geoffrey Dickens is the Senior News Analyst at the Media Research Center. You can follow him on Twitter here [3]