CNBC's Charles Gasparino hard to work with, but a great biz journalist

Tunku Varadarajan of The Financial Times, in evaluating a new book about former New York Stock Exchange head Dick Grasso, takes a look at the writer, CNBC‘s Charles Gasparino.

Varadarajan wrote, “In the insular world of New York journalism, Charles Gasparino has developed a reputation over the years for being a difficult man to work with — and in saying that, I pay him a compliment.

“Gasparino might be a great reporter, but he’s also a misunderstood reporter. He has ruffled a lot of feathers in the newsrooms where he has worked (the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek and now CNBC), largely by being highly competitive and by scrapping for every story. Scurrilous things have also been said about his having grown — in the course of years spent writing about Richard Grasso — much too close to his subject.

“This is quite untrue: Gasparino had peerless access to Grasso not because he was deferential or as a result of some sort of Italian coziness, but because he’s one of the best business reporters around.”

Read more here. Varadarajan and Gasparino worked at the Journal at the same time.