2004 – CBS Marketwatch.com commentator Thom Calandra resigns from the online financial journalism site after it was disclosed that the SEC was investigating his trading.
Business journalists have been tarnished because of their relationships with sources and because some writers are also investors. Money manager Jim Cramer, who also helped found online financial news source TheStreet.com, where he wrote regularly, and appeared on CNBC, was accused of trying to influence the prices of stocks in which he invested. In December 1998, CNBC required its reporters to disclose their investments.
In 1999, the San Jose Mercury News reassigned its high-tech columnist after they discovered she had made $9,000 profiting in an IPO by being able to purchase stock at an insider’s price. And in early 2004, CBS Marketwatch.com commentator Thom Calandra resigned from the online financial journalism site after it was disclosed that the SEC was investigating his trading. Calandra had written in a stock-picking newsletter about an energy company in which he owned shares. He had also traveled to Asia on a trip paid for by the company. As a result, the company then required its journalists to register their stock trades with the company, which also began conducting random audits of its financial reporters.
CNBC even came under criticism in 2003 for allowing reporter Maria Bartiromo interview Citigroup Chairman Sandy Weill. Bartiromo disclosed her investment of 1,000 shares in the company on the air.
In many cases, the media outlets acted quickly to quell fears from readers and viewers that their Wall Street reporting was improper or unethical. And the journalists who were caught provided a symbol for the thousands of other reporters and editors involved in reporting about financial news that the credibility of their jobs lies with themselves and their actions. Without that credibility, they would have no integrity when it came to informing consumers about investing and Wall Street.