Kneale v. Gasparino On CNBC This Week

Today's blog visits saw quite a few readers seeking information for searches generally described by a phrase like

'gasparino dennis kneale cnbc'

Being on vacation and away from television during most of the market hours this week, I was clueless as to the reason for the search. Well, I should say clueless as to the particular reason.

If Charlie Gasparino was involved, I could guess it was some sort of ugly, on-air fracas.

Following one of the search results which also appeared along with one of my older posts, I found this YouTube video of Thursday's CNBC incident involving Dennis Kneale and Gasparino.



I have to say, I was surprised at how baseless and inappropriate Gasparino became during the exchange. The source which featured this clip noted that both Gasparino and Kneale were former Wall Street Journal staffers, which may account for the vehemence of the words they parried. It would not be hard to imagine the slightly-geeky Kneale and steroidish, hulking Gasparino not getting along well at the business paper.

Sad to say, this on-air exchange reinforces my perception of Gasparino as not much more than a business gossip reporter. There's very little 'news' in the stories that he 'breaks' which really affects me, or my view of markets or business. His stories tend to accentuate personalities, feuds, and other non-substance-oriented topics.

In contrast, I find Kneale to be insightful, intelligent and possessing much common sense.

It's a pity that CNBC so prominently showcases an on-air reporter like Gasparino. In my opinion, he cheapens the network's programs by comments and behavior like that in the clip from Thursday. Why he thinks an unsubstantiated on-air, live accusation of Kneale as a fellow customer of Eliot Spitzer's call girl service of choice matters to viewers is beyond me.