Free Republic

WASHINGTON - The Securities and Exchange Commission will adopt a new policy on subpoenaing journalists, SEC Chairman Christopher Cox said Thursday in a move to resolve a controversy over the agency's recent demands for reporters' records. Cox and the other four SEC commissioners decided unanimously at a closed-door meeting to issue "clear principles" to guide agency attorneys on media subpoenas within the next week or so, he told reporters in a meeting. On Monday, after news reports had appeared on the matter, Cox took the unusual step of halting the agency's pursuit of subpoenas previously served on columnists for...

A regulatory investigation into allegations of collusion between short-sellers and a stock-research firm has led to the serving of subpoenas on TheStreet.com and its co-founder and major shareholder, James J. Cramer. Both TheStreet.com, which publishes this Web site, and Cramer, who writes a column on its RealMoney subscription site, have objected to the government's demands for communications between journalists and their sources. The subpoenas are related to a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into allegations that Gradient Analytics, an Arizona stock-research firm, published bearish research reports at the behest of a group of short-sellers, including Rocker Partners, a minority...

We were sitting at our desks yesterday playing solitaire when all of a sudden up on our screens pops an e-mail from Charles Simpson, Research Analyst at the Media Research Center. He was sending along to us a just-released study on Lou Dobbs entitled, "Trade Secrets: 'Lou Dobbs Tonight' Hides Good News Behind Negative View of Free Market". As the blogger's apprentice said, this was manna from heaven. It is an exhaustive study (it's exhausting for us just to watch him for a week!) of the content of Dobbs' show. Among the findings: -- CAFTA "never even received neutral consideration"...