Jason Calacanis-Kevin Rose catfight devolves into pussyfest

Jason Calacanis and Kevin Rose, interviewed together on the second episode of the GigaOm Show? Of course, the "fur would fly" — or so hosts Om Malik and Joyce Kim promised. Despite recent photographic evidence of a peace accord, Calacanis did, after all, try to undercut Kevin Rose's Digg social-news site with a revamped Netscape during his short tenure at AOL. So, did the claws come out?

Sorry, that's a big no. Of course, much of the feud was actually in the minds of Digg users and not the two entrepreneurs. Any animosity between the Web luminaries was simply "shit talking," as Rose put it on the show, not personal. But Calacanis and Rose are known for being outspoken and opinionated, and their approaches to business couldn't be more different. Surely, the two would inject some much-needed spice into the staid program — if only for their good friends Malik and Kim, Calacanis's sister-in-law.

Instead, the most contentious point of the interview came when Calacanis made this statement:

Netscape wasn't just a copy of Digg. It basically built on it. It did a lot of things that were much more innovative than Digg had done to date. And you've told me that before.

Kevin immediately interrupted. He couldn't allow Calacanis to declare Netscape more innovative than Digg. Nor could he allow his followers to believe that he had agreed to such a claim and had told Calacanis so himself. But rather than arguing the point, Rose just made a semantic shift:

Well, I think it's a different direction ... I don't think I'd call it ... yeah, it's a different direction.

What's the matter, boys? Too pussy to even agree to disagree? This wasn't a catfight; it was two kittens pawing at each other. When Kim called on the two to critique Pownce and Mahalo, the pair's respective new ventures, they just purred praise at each other.

Malik should be ashamed of himself. If he can't deliver on a simple catfight, then he's sure to lose his audience to the Valley's new sex kittens.

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