Nice humor about business journalists and who they know

Michael McCord, business editor of the Portsmouth Herald in New Hampshire, took note of the goings on earlier this week in regard to the SEC subpoenas of business journalists and the battle between reporters and Overstock.com President Patrick Byrne. His Sunday column is filled with some good sarcasm in relation to the issues.

To wit, McCord writes, “But l’affair Overstock does present a dilemma that all journalists face — how much do we know and when do we know it and can we ever really know what we know?

“You see, I know how tough it can be as a business journalist who people believe is in the know. I can’t tell you how often people assume I know far more than I actually do. They give me knowing glances, the kind shared by, well, people in the know.

“Of course, I humbly deflect these assumptions at every opportunity, because it’s unseemly to not be in the know when people expect you to be in the know. I’ve even been subpoenaed twice myself because lawyers assumed I knew far more than I did about the inner workings about this or that company being sued by shareholders.

“Alas, it’s time for me to have my Oprah moment and confess to living a lie. Despite claiming not to be in the know, I must revise earlier statements made in print and clarify that I have, indeed, been in the know.

“It’s time for me to clear my conscience with the betting, ah investing, public, my journalistic peers and, most importantly as my legal counsel has suggested to square things with the SEC (in case you missed the reference in the first paragraph, I did mention ‘good guys’ in the same breath with SEC.)”

Read his disclosures here. They are extremely funny.