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 using short sellers as sources has been an accepted practice in business journalism for decades. He has, however, been subpoenaed by the SEC, but the regulatory agency has backed off enforcing the subpoena.

Bigelow writes, “Greenberg says he tries to characterize the perspective of his sources, for example, by reporting whether they are betting against a company’s stock. In any case, he says such information serves only as the starting point in the reporting process.

“For Greenberg, covering Wall Street means rising at 4 a.m. to read newspapers and online news sites. A few souvenirs of his 32-year career in journalism decorate his office walls. They include a complimentary note from Gregory Peck framed with a photo of the actor, a sketch of Batman signed by the artist Bob Kane and a promotional flier for a TV business program sponsored by Fox News and TheStreet.com.”

Read the rest of the profile here.