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Looking a gift horse in the mouthLarge number of MarketWatch readers say rebate plan is off base By Jennifer Waters, MarketWatch Last Update: 3:33 PM ET Jan 27, 2008 CHICAGO (Menafn - MarketWatch) -- MarketWatch readers have no shortage of opinions when it comes to the stimulus package put forth last week by the White House and the House of Representatives to pump some oomph back into the U.S. economy. But a surprising theme emerged from the more than 700 responses to a story that asked you to respond to the proposal: Even though the plan would put hundreds of...

Ford Motor Co. shares took a hit Wednesday, pressured as Standard & Poor's pushed the automaker's credit rating deeper into junk status... At last check, shares of the second-biggest U.S. car manufacturer were down 13 cents, or 2%, at $6.41 -- just 3 cents above their lowest level in nearly 13 years. The ratings agency downgraded $151 billion in Ford debt by one notch, to a B+ rating, and thus put the rating four levels into speculative-grade territory, with a negative outlook. "Notwithstanding its multiyear plan to turn around the performance of its North American automotive operations, " S&P said,...

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...

When the liberal media engage in a feeding frenzy against a conservative politician, journalists are always on the lookout for conservative publications that get drawn into the hysteria. Then they can make the claim that they are not engaging in just an ideological jihad against their political enemies. In the case of Rep. Tom Delay, critics have cited the Wall Street Journal editorial page, which weighed in with an editorial criticizing Delay for being a big government conservative. That's quite funny because we have drawn attention to the fact that the Journal editorial page has become an advocate of big...

When I left a steady newspaper job nine years ago to help launch this online news site, many people called me nuts. Too risky, no credibility and no brand loyalty, the naysayers said. It seemed OK to me: I'd worked at big daily newspapers and a magazine for 15 years, and, as a news hound, welcomed the chance to publish scoops in real time. It's a simple "model," as the MBAs put it: We get a scoop and publish it on the Internet ASAP. No "back shop," no printers, no newspaper delivery people. Readers like it, and the print competitors...

...Eliot Spitzer divines such a "conflict" in the fact that insurance companies pay "contingent commissions" to brokers who bring them new business or get clients to renew policies. As in previous Spitzer cases, this one began with a press release citing snippets from one company's e-mails.... And as with previous Spitzer press releases, the media dutifully described the New York AG's unproven charges against a few as industry-wide "scandal." CBS Marketwatch spoke of contingent commissions being "at the center of a growing scandal in the insurance industry."... Allegations of inadequate disclosure of the terms of commission agreements could be easily...

JON FRIEDMAN'S MEDIA WEB Newsweek aims to crack Bush 'riddle' Commentary: Plus, Slate's suitors, New Yorker's surprise By Jon Friedman, CBS.MarketWatch.comLast Update: 12:01 AM ET Aug. 27, 2004   NEW YORK (CBS.MW) - Forget, for a moment, about terrorism, Iraq and even the media's misguided obsession over whether President Bush's supporters can conspire to reduce John Kerry to a Purple Heart-winning weenie. At Newsweek, the editors have one overriding objective as they prepare to cover the upcoming Republican convention in New York and the balance of Bush's re-election campaign. They intend to "crack the riddle that is George Bush," said...

MarketWatch.com commentator Calandra resigns Internal probe sparked by SEC request for recordsBy CBS MarketWatch Last Update: 2:43 PM ET Jan. 22, 2004 SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- Thom Calandra, chief commentator for CBS MarketWatch and one of the founders of its parent company, resigned Thursday amid an internal probe into his trading activities that was sparked by a query from the Securities and Exchange Commission. Calandra, 47, who for the last nine months was the author of a subscription newsletter, The Calandra Report, said in a letter to the company that he was resigning immediately. According to the company, Calandra told...