Media Unspun will suspend publication Dec. 13. That's right: Our luck runs out on Friday the 13th.

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JG

Stephen Friedman, whose name was floated over the weekend as the new director of the Economic Advisory Council, appears to be on hold. Enjoy the Muzak, Stephen. An operator should assist you shortly, maybe even by the end of the week.

Conservatives spat fire over Friedman's nomination because he's active in the Concord Coalition, a budget watchdog organization that's anti-deficit and thus anti-tax-cut. The right wing is also displeased that Friedman has donated to Democratic candidates in addition to Republican ones, and ran Goldman Sachs with Clinton's Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin from 1990 to '92. We're skeptical that Bush would really appoint a centrist, but that's the accusation. The conservative media, led by the National Review, are so mad you'd think Bush wanted to appoint Karl Marx.

"We are doing everything we can to quash this appointment," Stephen Moore, president of the tax-cutting advocacy organization Club for Growth, told Reuters. Funny, the New York Post said Moore "could" get the job himself, if Friedman gets shuttled and short-lister David Malpass of Bear Stearns passes. Not likely if the New York Times sources are correct that Moore has "no credibility with the administration." Moore's Club for Growth cohort, chairman Thomas Rhodes, has been helping the campaign by "spread(ing) word around Washington that Friedman was a poor manager at" Goldman Sachs, said the Washington Post's sources. Give a gold star to the Club for Growth's media relations department, because those guys were all over this round of Friedman articles.

Friedman's appointment has been delayed while his enemies try to dig up more dirt. The New York Post's sources asked why Friedman left his cushy job at Goldman Sachs for a "less interesting" one at Marsh & McClellan -- could there be intrigue there? If Friedman has any non-managerial skeletons in his closet, they're relatively fresh ones: Clinton appointed Friedman to the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board in 1999, and he's probably been checked out by the FBI twice already, said the Post.

"White House officials said privately Friedman was having trouble unwinding his complex personal finances in order to take public office," wrote the Los Angeles Times, "and there were reports that he is suffering from unspecified medical problems." The New York Times elaborated that the issues involved "selling off Mr. Friedman's extensive investments and a flare-up of a minor heart irregularity." Like heart trouble ever stopped a Bush pick. - Jen Muehlbauer

Bush pressured on Friedman (Reuters)
http://money.cnn.com/2002/12/10/news/friedman.reut/

Bush's Economic Pick Under Fire From Right
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37899-2002Dec10.html

Flip-Flop Over Friedman
http://www.nypost.com/business/64301.htm

Friedman Appointment as Bush Advisor Put Off for a 2nd Day (L.A. Times)
http://tinyurl.com/3fes

Nomination of Economic Adviser Is Delayed
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/11/politics/11ECON.html

White House economic policy: Confusion
http://www.salon.com/politics/feature/2002/12/11/friedman/

National Review Online
http://www.nationalreview.com/

The Bush administration gushed yesterday that SEC nominee William Donaldson is the right man at the right time to join the White House's rejiggered economic team. Media coverage, however, spoke with a forked tongue. There were quotes galore from commentators about Donaldson's prowess, but reporters questioned both his white-glove-clean resume and his stances.

The announcement was wholesome enough: Donaldson quoted his mother's homespun advice ("It's time for all of us to pull up our socks."). The Bushies ticked off his achievements. He's the Donaldson in Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, the investment bank purchased by Credit Suisse First Boston two years ago. He ran the New York Stock Exchange from 1990 to 1995, and most recently served as the chairman of insurer Aetna. Expect lots of media harangues over additional funding for the SEC, since Donaldson squeezed from Bush -- or perhaps Bush offered as a carrot -- the administration's agreement to lobby for more funding for the agency for fiscal year 2004.

The general theory among pro-Donaldson quarters is that the SEC needs a smoothie, an established Wall Street player to counter the disastrous tenure of outgoing chief Harvey Pitt. Pitt was a corporate lawyer, a trained litigator. Donaldson's an insider, and an all-around nice guy, apparently. Among his credits, commentators said, is that he has no ideology. To the Associated Press, his confirmation by the Senate "appeared assured."

The media's Donaldson-related "buts," however, may be substantial. At the NYSE, Donaldson not only argued for a loosening of financial disclosure rules for foreign companies that want to sell stock in the U.S., but according to media reports he fought hard for them. (He lost.) The Washington Post pointed out that he also criticized Regulation FD, a cornerstone ruling of the Clinton administration that requires companies to disclose significant developments or other information about themselves to all investors. (It passed.)

Then there's his tenure as Aetna chairman. For a year's worth of work, he earned $6 million. Lavish salaries are frowned on these days, as new WorldCom CEO Michael Capellas discovered yesterday when the judge overseeing his company's bankruptcy ripped the CEO's $3.5 million pay package. There's also that pesky dot-com IPO business. The Wall Street Journal noted that Donaldson was a board member at EasyLink Services, formerly Mail.com. The company's frothy IPO hit at $70, soared to $271, and is now worth as much as a pack of chewing gum. Even conservative FoxNews chimed in that Donaldson's penchant for "colorful candor" is reminiscent of ex-Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, whose loose tongue helped earn him a pink slip. Remember, you're either with us or against us. - Deborah Asbrand

President Names Insider to Lead SEC
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37486-2002Dec10.html

Bush Taps Veteran Financier To Replace Pitt as SEC Head
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1039533000656288130,00.html
(Paid subscription required.)

New SEC Chief Faces Gun-Shy Consumers (AP)
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Business/ap20021211_365.html

Bush Picks New SEC Overseer
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/12/06/politics/main532044.shtml

A Wall Street Insider for the S.E.C.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/11/business/11DONA.html

Worldcom Judge Eyes Capellas' Pay Package
http://www.nypost.com/business/64292.htm

Bush Nominates Donaldson as SEC Chairman
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,72642,00.html

Flip-Flop Over Friedman
http://www.nypost.com/business/64301.htm

Nomination of Economic Adviser Is Delayed
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/11/politics/11ECON.html

Media companies around the world are alarmed by a high-court ruling in Australia (The Economist)
http://tinyurl.com/3fer

EchoStar-Hughes Terminate Merger
http://dc.internet.com/news/article.php/1554641

Bush backs cash balance plans (AP)
http://www.freep.com/money/business/pens11_20021211.htm

So far, what do you think of President Bush's economic shakeup?
http://money.cnn.com/POLLSERVER/results/2008.html

Asia Piracy Costs $25 Billion a Year, Says Expert (Reuters)
http://tinyurl.com/3feq

If You Can't Beat 'Em, Pander to 'Em
http://www.business2.com/articles/mag/0,1640,45496,FF.html

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

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

Media Unspun is produced by The Vineyard Group Inc.
Copyright 2002 Media Unspun, Inc., and The Vineyard Group, Inc.