Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

The buzz on the battle between Maria Bartiromo and Erin Burnett is fun and gossipy to read about, but it does underscore a problem with business TV, which is the creation of business celebrities.

When Bartiromo was caught up in the ethics scandal with Todd Thomsom last year, there has been something she's lost that hasn't come back. It looks like Erin Burnett is heir apparent, and Bartiromo sees it coming and is evidently attempting to battle back and keep Burnett from continually gain in popularity on her. It's probably too late for that.

It seems what all the hype is about is in relationship to the air time Burnett is getting on the "Today" show, where she gets a much larger audience than Bartiromo.

"Maria is like, hey, why isn't it me on the 'Today' show? She's very jealous of all the attention Erin is getting," a source said.

When you hear Bartiromo being called "The Bank Skank" and "Money Honey" while Burnett is referred to as "Street Sweetie" and "Maria 2.0" it sounds like we've already got a winner. It's only a matter of time before Burnett rises even further if she doesn't screw things up.

So what does all this have to do with value for business? Absolutely nothing. The problem with creating business celebrities in this way is it's really a detractant from valuable business information.

As you can see from this, CNBC is just another source of entertainment, rather than a serious business news network. I think that's a problem for them. While this little tiff will cause people to watch the network (who knows if it was even contrived by them?), it won't help them to create a circus atmosphere.

We've see some things happen to battle the upcoming business channel being offered by News Corp. (NWS-A), maybe they feel sensationalism is a competitive advantage, believing that's how Rupert Murdoch will get market share from them.

While you do have to have some entertainment value in any type of TV show, it has to be the right kind. To me this has made CNBC (GE) look like a soap opera and reality show, rather than a place to go to get solid business information. They seem to be making all the wrong moves at the wrong time. Could this be panic setting in and fear of the upcoming News Corp. business channel? It looks like it is.