Fox Business' aggressive holiday card smackdown of CNBC was in the news last week — and many, but not all, outlets printed Fox Business' rebuttal to CNBC's response to the card (including this one). One outlet that dropped the ball? Fox Business' News Corp. cousin the New York Post. What's more, insiders tell Huffington Post that the Post solicited and received comment from Fox Business, only to let CNBC have the last word in Holly Sanders' article about the back-and-forth.
After the card, which mocked CNBC and Jim Cramer, was made public, CNBC issued a statement trashing Fox Business for its low ratings, saying, "As the lowest rated cable network among all rated cable networks, if Fox 'Business' News sends a card to every viewer, advertiser and individual who has ever seen or even heard of FBN, it would be the smallest holiday card print run in history."
Fox Business then responded, saying, "Perhaps the humorless, out of touch folks at CNBC should pull their heads out of Englewood Cliffs and embrace the reality of a viable competitor."
But Sanders' Post article ends with CNBC's response, and does not include the Fox Business statement, leading one to wonder whether there is trouble in Murdochland or if the New York Post forgot how to write a good, juicy story.
Of course, there is another possible explanation: the Post, notorious for its contentious relationship with crosstown rival the New York Daily News, may have sour grapes over all the Fox News-related stories the Daily News' TV Editor, Richard Huff, has beat them to. In just the last three months, for instance, Huff has beaten the Post to the news that Glenn Beck was joining Fox News and contract news from Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly.
Sanders did not reply to an email asking why the Post did not run the Fox Business response.
This post has been updated from its original version.