Kathie ain't afraid to flaunt it,
Screencaps courtesy of cnbcer at the Reporter Caps forum.
the blogs debating how good Burnett is in bed, and whether Michelle Caruso-Cabrera is or is not dating Gary Parr, the Lazard Frères banker who worked on the Bear Stearns bailout; the snarky comments from male executives at both CNBC and FBN about whether CNBC’s Becky Quick and FBN’s Liz Claman get interviews with Warren Buffett because he wants to sleep with them. Most viewers of cable business news are male, and it remains to be seen if Fox’s approach will work as a marketing tactic, but it all infuriates Bartiromo.
“There is not a rivalry,” insists Bartiromo. “Erin and I are friends.” For Bartiromo the competition goes well beyond Burnett, and the pressure to stay one step ahead never lets up. “I’m always worrying,” she says. “I mean, if I’m not worried about something, I worry.” Last year she trademarked the name “Money Honey,” and set up a company by that name to produce animated shows to teach children about money—although the company’s name may change because she got “a lot of pushback” from people who thought “it was too sexy for children.”
“Erin and I have spoken about this,” says Bartiromo, “and I just think that we both feel like, well, maybe at the end of the day someone is doing this, planting this, because it puts more attention on the network.” Asked if she means executives at CNBC, she smiles and says nothing. CNBC roundly denies this, but it sort of makes sense. After all, a fight between two smart, successful, beautiful women does not make for a bad marketing tactic in a business that still caters largely to men. “I think that when people see strong, successful women, they love to imagine that there is a rivalry,” says Burnett. “Maybe it’s because there are not as many women. And maybe, I don’t know,” she says, rolling her eyes, “it’s a male-fantasy thing.”