Rocky Mountain News editor responds to allegations about shorts

Rocky Mountain News finance editor David Milstead responded to allegations by a CNBC show and Internet message boards that the paper’s business section is in cahoots with short sellers to drive down the price of shoemaker Crocs.

Milstead wrote, “Now, why did we write those articles? What on earth could have motivated us, outside of doing the bidding of short sellers?

“How about a good old-fashioned tip, in the case of the story that featured news of the worker furlough? I’m not going to go into detail about who are sources are or are not, because if we play the process-of-elimination game now, we’ll have to do it in the future.

“So let me state the obvious instead: Everyone at the Rocky Mountain News lives in Colorado and has friends, relatives and neighbors in Colorado communities. People talk about what’s going on in their lives. If they know someone who got laid off, they’ll tell somebody else. We’ll eventually hear it.

“Why should anyone assume that information about a Colorado company published in a Colorado newspaper unquestionably came from a New York short seller?”

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