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There they go again: The week’s most entertaining blogosphere smackdown features go-for-the-jugular rivals Nikki Finke and Sharon Waxman clashing over reports of the possible sale of NBC Universal, a high-stakes business and entertainment story capturing interest from Wall Street to the Walk of Fame.

Escalating an online feud of Paris-Lindsay dimension, Waxman got things started with a report at The Wrap that Comcast is poised to buy NBC Universal from GE for $35 billion.

Finke, ever eager to proclaim that it’s all about her, posted a quick knockdown at Deadline Hollywood Daily, dumping on Waxman’s scoop as “an internet blog’s bullshit” and avowing that she had it first anyway. Which is sort of like complaining a restaurant’s food is terrible, and, by the way, the portions are too damn small.

Then she took a second whack at Waxman, after CNBC’s David Faber pooh-poohed The Wrap report on the air:

“How humiliating for that struggling Hollywood blog, which might fare better to remember that it takes a long time to build a reputation for news accuracy, and just a blink of the eye to lose the trust of readers.”

Ouch.

To her credit, Waxman didn’t take the bait, but kept her focus, doubling down by following up her own story with more details, leaving Finke to do little but shout “bullshit” yet again.

Though we admire the passionate ferocity with which Finke plays the game, we know Waxman as a first-rate journalist, who covered the entertainment beat for both the Washpost and NYT before moving to the Wild West world of blogging, and who really doesn’t need lectures on crediblity from Ms. Potty Mouth. Bottom line: The Wrap report will either turn out to be on the money or not, so it’s a little early for Finke to be doing touchdown dances and taunting in the end zone.

Calbuzz on the trend curve: Thanks to our friend Joe Trippi for pointing us to an article in the Guardian  noting that the United Kingdom has become the first major economy to spend more on internet ads than TV advertisements. This,  according to a report from the Internet Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers. The Guardian reports:

“The internet now accounts for 23.5% of all advertising money spent in the UK, while TV ad spend accounts for 21.9% of marketing budgets.

“The IAB originally predicted that internet ad spend would overtake TV at the end of 2009; however, the crippling advertising recession accelerated this by six months. TV advertising fell about 17% year on year in the first half, to about £1.6bn, according to the report.”

Businesses are finding that for a whole lot less money than print or broadcast advertising, they can get a lot of eyeballs on their message by placing ads with online publications like — you guessed it — Calbuzz.com. At least that’s what our Department of Shameless Self Promotion argues.

PS:  Regarding  Joe working for Jerry Brown’s campaign for governor, which Joe Garofoli breathlessly noted after Joe tweeted in support of Crusty: This is such old news that it wasn’t even its own item when we mentioned it back in June...and by the way, the deal is not inked, whether Joe will do media, general consulting or what is not established…’cause, after all, it’s Jerry Brown we’re talking about here.

Anatomy of corruption: Timesmen Eric Lichtblau and Eric Lipton churned out a splendid case study of how Washington Really Works with their investigative takedown of creepo Nevada Senator John Ensign, and his vigorous efforts to cover up his stomach-churning behavior after  boffing the wife of a top aide and close personal friend.

“Judgment gets impaired by arrogance, and that’s what’s going here,”  Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn, who aided and abetted Ensign’s scandalous actions, tells the Erics.

Give us a break. Coburn’s abstract, devil-made-him-do-it verbal construction is typical of how holier-than-thou Republicans always seem to dodge straightforward accountability and personal responsibility when they get caught with their pants down.

It’s hard out there for a pimp: Jerry Brown is getting whacked from the left for opening an investigation of those Big Brains in several ACORN offices who got caught on camera giving business advice on prostitution to the spawn of Yuppie scum posing as a hooker and pimp. C’mon — the guy is, after all, the Attorney General of California and would be guilty of first-degree putting his thumb on the scale if he didn’t look into the scandal. To his credit, Crusty also plans to investigate possible law breaking by the video auteurs for taping people without their consent.

The very rich are very different from you and me: Although Calbuzz advertising revenues are soaring, (see above),  we once again  missed the cut-off for the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans (price of admission: $1.3 billion). Confirmed, if increasingly ineffectual, capitalists, we felt mostly slack-jawed envy at the news that the 400’s collective wealth totals $1.57 trillion; our deep-rooted SDS DNA, however, tells us a more appropriate reaction is the outrage expressed admirably by “The Looting of America” author Les Leopold here.

Drill, officer, drill: The pitch for an endorsement by the largest cop union in the state by termed-out Assemblyman Pedro Nava, a Democratic contender for Attorney General,  fell short in part because of his aggressive leadership in opposing the controversial Tranquillon Ridge oil project off the coast of Santa Barbara. What does policing have to do with platforms for offshore drilling? For one thing, both the Peace Officers Research Association of California and PXP, sponsors of T-Ridge, are represented by the same Sacto lobbyist, Aaron Read & Associates. The reliable Timm Herdt connects the dots here.

Today’s sign the end of civilization is near: No word on whether the guy who whacked Ted Williams’s cryonically frozen head with a wrench can hit the curve ball.