Dealbreaker's Bess Levin is once again playing catfight facilitator between Reuters finance blogger Felix Salmon and CNBC's Charlie Gasparino. This is the latest in a series of slapfests between the two business pundits. Last time, Salmon smacked around Gasparino for claiming Obama had spooked the stock market. Gasparino barked his response in an interview with Levin:

Who the hell ever heard of Felix Salmon? Where did he come from. Just another twerpy, pseudo media critic ... He's never broken a story in his life ... I'm biased because I write a column and I am honest about my views? This guy is a nutjob ... The last thing the wrote about me, I think he was on drugs. When your brain cells are so limited that you can actually come up with what he does...wow. What's worrisome is that he's obviously not a smart guy, but his editor is dumber is for letting him run this stuff. ... He's got a bizarre fixation with me. He's got some weird obsession about me; why that is i [sic] have no idea.

Now the fight's over Gasparino's new book, The Sellout, a narrative of the financial crisis. It's competing with a simultaneous account by business report Andrew Ross Sorkin that Salmon has reviewed favorably (the Wire covers this here and here). Salmon doesn't much like Gasparino's:

• Salmon's Flash Judgment: Sorkin's Is Better "Gasparino's book has just arrived," Salmon tweeted Thursday evening. "Not impressed by the paper quality or the cover design, but the price is $5 less than Sorkin." Then, ten minutes later: "How many times does Gasparino's name appear on the book jacket? 14! (Sorkin's appears 7 times on his.)"

• Bess Levin Here to Help this Fight Along  Levin offered translations of Salmon's tweets. "Aesthetically, it's a piece of shit," she wrote, interpreting Salmon's first remark about The Sellout. "Too much Charlie," she added, regarding Salmon's observation about name appearances.

• Gasparino: So Salmon's Got a New Lover?  Levin also contacted Gasparino for a comment. The reply: "I’ve known for many years that Salmon is obsessed with me but it appears that Andrew has stolen his heart."

• And Another Retort  The Business Insider's John Carney apparently wanted in on the action, and also asked Gasparino "what he thought of Salmon's response." Gasparino obligingly called it "the weirdest review I've ever read," but "not surprising given who it came from."

• Salmon Here: See You Nutjobs After I Return from Spain  "This is getting a bit surreal," the blogger replied. "[B]oth Clusterstock and Dealbreaker are now phoning up Charlie Gasparino asking for his reaction to my tweets. It's clearly time for me to go on holiday."
  

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Heather Horn