Strangeness from Gasparino

Charles Gasparino zoned out on camera yesterday. Or at least, that's one way to read this YouTube clip.

CG, as many of you must know, is an on-air editor at the business-oriented cable channel CNBC.

On their regular late-afternoon program, "Closing Bell," anchor Dylan Ratigan introduced CG, obviously under the impression that CG was in possession of some new important information about Merrill Lynch.

The camera then framed Charles with the words "Management turmoil continues at Merrill Lynch" bannered beneath his face.

But whatever news or rumor Charles had been ready to convey on that subject never got out to us. Apparently, he took offense at the way he was introduced, the open-ended phrase "what do ya got?" -- what followed was an extremely odd colloquy over the Zen-like nature of that expression.

When Dylan tired of this, he told Charles that he didn't have all day, here's a "capitalist system" to cover.

Charles replied, "shoot to the capitalist system," an expression I've never heard. I would assume he meant, "then cut to your other stories about the capitalist system, because I don't really have anything about Merrill."

Dylan replied by repeated Charles' words while dropping the preposition: "shoot the capitalist system??"

Watch it yourself. Tell me what the heck you think was going on, and how safe can Charles' job be.