For the past week and especially since Sunday night, CNBC has barraged us with second-by-second “reporting” of Stan O’Neal’s departure from Merrill Lynch. Charlie Gasparino has gotten a lot of air time reporting nothing - unless of course you find reporting a new rumor to replace the last rumor that he reported incorrectly to be some example of journalism. We need to expect more from the people who pump us full of this crap. Instead, I suspect it’s about as engaging to viewers as car accidents are to rubberneckers who love to slow down and watch. Apparently, people love to listen to rumor reporting. I do find it funny that Gasparino’s wishlist of rumored replacements which centered on Fink, Fleming or McCann hasn’t materialized (except for the “interim co” whatever title Fleming got). For all the rumor reporting by Gasparino, I never heard about Cribiore or Fakahany. I thought I missed those insights until Gasparino had a hard enough time pronouncing “Cribiore” that it appears he may have never even heard the name while on his top secret phone calls to “people familiar with the matter.”