The cat fight between CNBC and Fox Business Network at the World Economic Forum in Davos is out of control.
The final straw - Fox Business News anchor Maria Bartiromo was caught on tape talking about CNBC's production team nearby. "Look what they're doing… they're embarrassing themselves."
You can see it about 3 seconds into the video below (via TVNewser).
Now, apparently Bartiromo - who left her almost-20 year post as CNBC's 'Money Honey' last year - was just reacting to a CNBC employee's comment to Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan. Moynihan was about to go to an interview with Fox Business News.
"Ooooohhh. That's where your headed," said the CNBC employee, according to TVNewser. "They're no competition!"
Sadly, these are not the first punches that have been thrown between the two networks regarding this annual gathering of business, intellectual and political leaders.
Last week, before anyone was even wheels down in Davos, Fox Business Network's Charles Gasparino went on the air and said that CNBC Managing Editor Nick Dunn would be wearing his "ass for a hat" after seeing how superior Fox's coverage of Davos would be to CNBC's.
And all this week Fox Business News reporters have aired grievances with CNBC's behavior. They accuse the CNBC of threatening guests - of telling them that they don't do CNBC first, they don't do CNBC at all.
This made Fox Business News senior correspondent (and former CNBC reporter), Charles Gasparino, very upset. So he took to Twitter:
#Davos2015 @cnbc "threat gate" spoke to CNBCs nick Dunn he confirms that he told guests they "have to do us first" @LizClaman @FoxBusiness
- Charles Gasparino (@CGasparino) January 22, 2015
my philosophy when dealing w @cnbc thuggery in #davos2015 "they pull a knife you pull a gun..." @BeastQuake @NickDunnCNBC @BrianWSteel
- Charles Gasparino (@CGasparino) January 23, 2015
1 of these days @NickDunnCNBC & rest @CNBC will realize they are threatening CEOs to come on their #davos2015 shows so they can say NOTHING
- Charles Gasparino (@CGasparino) January 23, 2015
Fox Business' Liz Claman mentioned it on her show as well.
But here's the thing: This complaint from Fox Business News is hardly new. In fact, it's common knowledge that CNBC is ruthless about getting guests first - not just in Davos but at every event, and at home. Right or wrong, complaining about it is like Kim Kardashian taking a selfie.
Besides, we haven't heard anything from Bloomberg TV about it.