SEC needs to define what is a journalist
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s new regulations on when a journalist can be subpoenaed left out one important detail, according to former BusinessWeek reporter Gary Weiss, who points this out on his blog: They didn’t define who is a journalist and who isn’t. While at first blush this might seem like a black and white […]
SEC's decision: Subpoenas only in rare cases
The Securities and Exchange Commission decided on Wednesday that it will only subpoena journalists to gather information for its investigations in rare cases, according to published reports this morning. The SEC earlier this year had subpoenaed three reporters in its investigation into allegations against a hedge fund and a research firm for giving information about […]
Herb Greenberg profiled by San Diego paper
Bruce Bigelow, a business writer for the San Diego Union-Tribune, has a nice profile of MarketWatch columnist Herb Greenberg in this morning’s newspaper. Greenberg is the financial journalist who has been criticized by executives at companies such as Overstock.com recently for using short sellers as sources. Greenberg denies that he has done anything wrong, and […]
Are biz sources being silenced?
Bill Fleckenstein, who runs a hedge fund in Seattle and writes a column for MSN Money, believes that some hedge fund managers are no longer willing to talk on the record to business journalists because of the recent push by some companies to threaten hedge funds with litigation when they are discussed in a negative […]
What were they thinking?
In the April 10 issue of BusinessWeek, which just came out, there is an article titled “The Secret Lives of Short-Sellers” that goes into detail about how hedge funds and research firms that specialize in finding companies whose stocks are going to fall are increasingly doing battle with the companies, namely Overstock.com and Biovail. Most […]
Subpoena requests firm's contact with eight financial reporters
The New York Post is reporting Tuesday that a subpoena to research firm Gradient Analytics asked for records of all e-mail and phone contacts Gradient has had with approximately eight financial reporters. The eight reporters are Marketwatch’s Herb Greenberg, Mad Money host Jim Cramer, Dow Jones Newswire’s Carol Remond, Bethany McLean of Fortune magazine, Jesse […]
Herb Greenberg and shorts
Don Bauder writes in the San Diego Reader about MarketWatch.com columnist Herb Greenberg and his use of shorts as sources in the wake of the SEC subpoenas against Greenberg and a couple of other journalists. Bauder writes, “Only a few journalists such as Greenberg have consistently warned investors about the fraud-infested market. He began shaking […]
CEOs posting on the Internet and Reg FD
Former BusinessWeek reporter and author Gary Weiss has an interesting couple of posts on his blog about Overstock.com President Patrick Byrne and his use of the Internet to post potentially market-moving information and wonders where such actions stand in relation to Regulation Fair Disclosure, which requires public companies to disclose information to all interested parties […]
SABEW urges SEC to limit subpoenas
The Society of American Business Editors and Writers issued a statement about the Securities and Exchange Commission’s subpoenas of three business journalists last month in regards to its investigation. The statement reads, “The Society of American Business Editors and Writers, the nation’s largest trade group for financial journalists, salutes the effort by Chairman Christopher Cox […]
The Wall Street Journal on the SEC's subpoenas
The Wall Street Journal wrote an editorial in Wednesday’s newspaper criticizing the SEC’s recent action to subpoena three journalists, including two — Marketwatch’s Herb Greenberg and Dow Jones Newswires’ Carol Remond — who work for the Journal’s parent company Dow Jones. The Journal writes: “As long as journalists at Dow Jones are honestly reporting what […]
