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Don't expect the New York Times to serve any friendly spins to Harvey Pitt. The chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission doesn't seem to have many fans among the media. But he has likely made a special enemy of the Times by denying its report last week that his commission had decided who should lead a new board to oversee standards in accounting.

Last Monday, the Times' Stephen Labaton broke the news that the commission had offered the top accounting job to reform-minded pension chief John Biggs, who heads the giant pension fund TIAA-CREF. Citing "people involved in the selection," Labaton wrote that Biggs had already accepted the new job, which is a key part of the government's response to this year's financial scandals. But by midweek, Labaton and many others were reporting that, in response to criticism from industry execs and Republican lawmakers, Pitt was withdrawing his support for Biggs. Meanwhile, Pitt issued a statement formally denying that the commission had offered the job to anyone. More pointedly, he referred to the "plant[ing] of false news stories" (Wall Street Journal). Who did the alleged planting? "Political opponents" said the Financial Times, which scored an interview with the chairman. In Pitt's case, that's an especially general term.

Who's been talking? The New York Times has kept its sources anonymous. In fact, it backed away from the controversy this morning, choosing to run Reuters and Associated Press copy on all things SEC. Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal did its own digging among "SEC insiders," and unearthed a story that backs up much of the Times' account. Stopping short of openly refuting Pitt, the Journal wrote that Biggs (a former client of the chairman) at least "believed he had been promised the job and had already begun making arrangements to retire early" from his present post. Ouch.

On Friday, the White House decided to lend Pitt an assistant press secretary. That seems a savvy move. While the Times has small reason to love Pitt, we find no outlet looking to do him any favors. Consider for instance the many articles this morning (AP, WSJ, Washington Post) concerning a Senate committee's investigation into Enron. Each of the articles describes the committee's sharp rebuke of the SEC for failing to protect investors. Each of the articles mentions Pitt. And each tacitly lets him take the commission's blame, with no one pointing out that he'd only been in the job two months when Enron began to detonate.

Our suggestion, Mr. Pitt? Start making some friends in the fourth estate. - Lori Patel

Chief of Big Pension Plan Is Choice for Accounting Board
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/01/business/01ACCO.html

S.E.C. Chief Hedges on Accounting Regulator
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/04/business/04ACCO.html

Fight over Accounting Board Appointments (Reuters)
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/business/business-accounting-board-biggs.html

SEC's Pitt Now Faces Dissent From Within the Commission
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1033950685145918833,00.html
(Paid subscription required.)

SEC chief says critics planted false stories (Financial Times)
http://tinyurl.com/1tsp

SEC chief in political mire over watchdog (Financial Times)
http://tinyurl.com/1tsq

Report: Watchdog System Failed Enron (AP)
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Enron-Watchdogs.html

Systemic Failure by SEC Is Seen in Enron Debacle
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1033944629262271233,00.html
(Paid subscription required.)

New Report Faults SEC In Fight On Fraud
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51753-2002Oct6.html

Merrill Lynch must be starting to rue the advent of email. Another missive by the investment bank is news after the Financial Times revealed that a Merrill analyst had queried ratings agency Standard & Poor's on the financial health of Commerzbank, the big German bank. The uproar over the email gave investors the willies, not to mention its effect on creditors like Merrill. But did the Financial Times have an ax to grind in its own war of words with its parent company's CEO?

The peach paper says it "unearthed" the "damaging" email; other outlets pegged it as merely "leaked." Whatever the origin, the message did indeed become damaging once the FT published it. Commerzbank was forced to deny that it had suffered heavy trading losses -- not the kind of press that Germany's limping banking sector needs right now. Shares of Commerzbank tanked 6% over the weekend and continued to get beat up Monday morning. Was the email genuinely indicative of trouble, especially given Commerzbank's string of recent woes? A columnist in Britain's Sunday Telegraph thought so, calling the query rational, but also an indication of creditors' "profound doubts" about big banking institutions. Merrill defended the inquiry as routine, naturally. The Guardian reports today that Commerzbank may sue Merrill. There's also undoubtedly no love lost between Commerzbank and the Financial Times, with the newspaper back today reporting that the bank will cut "hundreds" more jobs on top of the 4,300 it was committed to eliminating by the end of 2003.

Perhaps the Financial Times covered the email as a reaction to comments by Dame Marjorie Scardino, CEO of Pearson, which owns the newspaper, that business reporters "often don't know a lot about business. It's a shame." A bigger shame, the Times reporters, felt, was the public dis by their owner. According to the Sunday Telegraph, the Financial Times is demanding a mea culpa from Scardino. - Deborah Asbrand

Merrill E-Mail Sparks European Bank Fears (Financial Times)
http://tinyurl.com/1tw2

Text of Merrill Lynch e-mail about Commerzbank (Financial Times)
http://tinyurl.com/1tw3

Hundreds More Jobs Set to Go at Commerzbank (Financial Times)
http://tinyurl.com/1tw4

Commerzbank Rejects Claims of Facing Credit Crunch
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/0,,1-5-438607,00.html

Commerzbank Says 'Crisis, What Crisis?' (Telegraph)
http://tinyurl.com/1tw7

Commerzbank Scotches Losses Rumour (Telegraph)
http://tinyurl.com/1tw9

A perfect storm ahead? (second item) (Telegraph)
http://tinyurl.com/1twa

Commerzbank May Sue Merrill Over Email
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,805776,00.html

Commerzbank Hit By Cash Fears
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2305511.stm

Tech Sector Leads Decline In European Stocks
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1033975592627859153.djm,00.html
(Paid subscription required.)

FT staff demand apology from Scardino (Telegraph)
http://tinyurl.com/1twc

Oil jumps after tanker 'attack' in Yemen
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2304813.stm

Alternative Weeklies Divide Turf
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/07/business/media/07PAPE.html

Trainee(!) dishwasher pleads guilty to $80m identity fraud
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/27449.html

A New Vocabulary at Headline News
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/07/business/media/07CNN.html

Zagat Starts Charging For Access to Its Reviews
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1033756830314378193,00.html
(Paid subscription required.)

Wall St Braces for Brazil Vote Volatility (Reuters)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52362-2002Oct6.html

Dejected Brazilians Look to Left
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48897-2002Oct5.html

Even if Heads Roll, Mistrust Will Live On
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/06/business/yourmoney/06SCAN.html

Philip Morris loses $28B suit
http://money.cnn.com/2002/10/04/news/companies/philipmorris/index.htm

Bank Plans Big Job Cuts
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/07/business/07BANK.html

Dispute threatens Net radio deal (Reuters)
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-960944.html

Copyedited by Jim Duffy (jimduffy86@yahoo.com).

Advertising: Erik Vanderkolk (erikvanderkolk@yahoo.com).

Editor and publisher: Jimmy Guterman (guterman@vineyard.com).

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