The NYPost has an item about the apparent rivalry between "the Money Honey, Maria Bartiromo, and the Street Sweetie, Erin Burnett."

We mention this because late yesterday, as the market began tanking, a CNBC spokesperson explained to TVNewser how the CNBC talent would be used to report the down day, across the NBC nets. At some point, that changed when Bartiromo, not Burnett, led off the Today show coverage (with Meredith Vieira anchoring live from Wall Street.) Burnett did appear on the Today show, but during the less-watched 8am hour (after a wedding trivia segment).

>Update: An insider emails TVNewser, "The newsroom is shocked that Erin's people are feeding this stuff to the (NY) Post. We had hoped that she was going to take the higher road, instead she is making us all look bad."

(me thinks Liz Claman got out at the right time)