Kneale was at CNBC for three years with many assuming that he would leave when his contract ran out this month. Kneale’s program CNBC Reports was canceled after five months last year, a move which apparently left some bitterness between the host and his employers. He spoke about this and his contract negotiations with Business Insider last May, a move our own Steve Krakauer guessed might “seal his CNBC fate.” Whether that interview was a deciding factor or not, it would appear that Kneale is saying goodbye to CNBC and heading to Fox.

This is the second time one of CNBC’s on-air talents has ended up making the switch following Charlie Gasparino’s hire last February.

He’s gone public about the contract status, taking a shot at execs in the process, in a Business Insider profile sure to ruffle what are likely the last feathers of his stay at the network.

Vince Veneziani at Business Insider has the exclusive interview:

It isn’t clear whether all four anchors of “Power Lunch” will hold on to their spots in the one-hour remake. Kneale himself admits he doesn’t know: “They haven’t told us,” he says of CNBC brass.

This just as Dennis’s contract is due to run out at CNBC. After a 25-year career at The Wall Street Journal and Forbes Magazine, he joined CNBC in October of 2007. Given that the average contract in television is three years, that means his contract is likely coming up for renewal this fall. So far, CNBC hasn’t told him whether it will keep him around. “All my life I’ve worked at basically three places. I’m not sure what I’ll do,” he says….But CNBC canceled the show in mid-September 2009, filling the time slot with documentary retreads on everything from “California Chronic” to “Billionaire Biographies.” Kneale still seems stung by the move. “I’m not sure they ever watched my show” before killing it, he says. “I just hope it’s not my only shot.”

Absurd move to take public shots at execs while your contract is up for renewal, or extremely absurd move? A CNBC spokesperson tells Mediaite, “We don’t comment on contract status.”

But a former CNBC executive, Jonathan Wald, was honest in his take on Twitter. After a reporter asked “should we start a ‘Save Dennis’ campaign?” Wald responded, “Good luck with that.” (More direct, to Kneale: “you have lost your mind.”)

For his part, Kneale seems to be relishing the controversy. On Twitter, he writes, “brace for the vitriol! new profile of me here,” and “the profile itself is ok, not trashing. let’s see how the comments come out a few hours from now. won’t be pretty.”

Besides the strange decision to go public, the outlet is interesting as well – Kneale hasn’t always been on great relations with business bloggers. So where will he end up? First of all, leaving the business network does not automatically mean leaving NBCU – just look at what happened with Dylan Ratigan. Or he could end up at another business network, like Bloomberg or FBN. Or, I guess, he could get his contract renewed at CNBC. Maybe his bosses will ‘watch the show’ this time.

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He broke the news himself on Twitter — taking one last (desperate) shot at bloggers, the same “mean-spirited” miscreants who he lashed out at earlier this summer, deriding them as “digital dickweed,” in what his producer called a moment of ‘poetry, the best thing he’d done for the show.’

After announcing the end of his run, invoking Douglas MacArthur and The Terminator, Kneale rattled off a series of tweets that echoed his assertive, combative tone on television but with explicit bitterness and a latent sense of insecurity:

Kneale breaks the news:

In response to a fan who signaled his approval for the cancellation, asking “What took so long?”:

On his replacement at the 8 p.m. hour — documentaries:

And finally, to drive the point home :

Save the appeals for validation, Dennis. It’s not personal, it’s TV. But isn’t there some sinister irony here: a cancelled cable news anchor tweeting his disdain for bloggers, while rubbing it in their faces that he still has some airtime?

Earlier: CNBC Burns Airtime on Blogger “Morons” and “Dickweeds”

Alls

But the “nobodies” and “morons” of the blogosphere keep trying to paint him as a Goldman Sachs muppet.  

After brushing off criticism from Janet Tavakoli, a Chicago-based financial consultant who has appeared opposite Charlie on shows like Squawk Box (because she’s a ‘nobody‘), Charlie went on CNBC’s Power Lunch with Michelle Caruso-Cabrera and punched down at a financial blogger who has been getting under his skin (Video below):

Charles Gasparino: Every time I say something nice about Goldman — even moderately nice after beating them up 90% of the time — I get these moronic bloggers writing about me… especially one moron at Zero Intelligence, or Zero Hedge, I can’t remember which one it is. But this idiot keeps writing that I’m [getting paid by Goldman]. Alls I’m doing is this: I will beat up on Goldman Sachs all the time, but I have to give their side of the story — there’s to you Mr. Zero Intelligence.”

Michelle Caruso-Cabrera: “Moronic bloggers is redundant… He’s probably not as handsome as you either.”

Now, this is nothing new for CNBC. Just last month Dennis Kneale called-out bloggers for their “mean-spirited negativity,” calling them ”digital dickweed” — “I say dickweed because apparently it is indeed a plant akin to pond scum.” Hard not to be offended when grown-ups resort to name-calling. Suck it up, cable boys!

Charlie Gasparino on Power Lunch:

(Note: Charlie busts out his French accent at the end… “Numb de plumb”?)

Dennis Kneale on 8 p.m. hour: