May 26, 1998
Rear Echelon Revelations: Cramer Explains His Relationship with TSC
By James J. Cramer
Wow, it happened. That's all I could think.
Someone called me the other day, urging me to kill a nasty piece that was to appear in
TheStreet.com. Hoo-hah, had to happen someday, given the visibility I have with TheStreet.com. I
know the individual who called will never, ever believe this, but I have about as much clout with the
editor-in-chief about what goes into our cybermag as my mother has.
I picked my beloved mom, who passed away 13 years ago, to make this clear, because nobody,
from saints and Samaritans to war criminals and wackos, ever invokes his mom in vain. Even Nixon
pronounced his mother a saint in his farewell Aug. 8, 1974, speech before departing the White
House. You just don't bring out this stuff idly.
Out of respect to the complaining individual's wishes -- not one bit more -- I called Dave Kansas,
the editor-in-chief of TheStreet.com, and relayed that this individual desired the story to be killed
because of alleged inaccuracies. Dave said "thanks," and hung up. No more. He did not ask me
what he should do. He did not try to figure out what Cramer really wanted. He just acknowledged
the call and rung off. And the story ran within the hour. As I knew it would if Dave thought the story
was truthful, accurate and valuable to the reader. Because Dave Kansas, not Jim Cramer, calls the
shots in editorial. Jim Cramer only calls the shots in his column, as it should be. I can't do jack about
what appears everywhere else on the site.
I can no more order up a story in TheStreet.com or get one killed than I can make a story appear in
The Wall Street Journal. No, check that, I think I have a better chance of getting a story idea in the
Journal. Journal reporters call me all of the time. They want to know what I am seeing and hearing.
Hey, that's their job. In a bizarre twist of helping competitors, I tell them stuff all of the time that I
could never, ever tell Dave Kansas or anyone else at TheStreet.com. I just don't go there.
TheStreet.com reporters can't make that kind of call to me or to my staff. We all took pledges at
the beginning of this thing, and I gave my word to the government, that they wouldn't and they
haven't. I have met most of TheStreet.com's staff through the Xmas party we held at year-end, and
through my five visits to the newsroom in the last year, two of which were to show my wife around,
and the others were to see if anyone was doing customer service, because I couldn't get onto the
site.
That's the extent of my contact, however, and everybody who works at Cramer Berkowitz, which
is located across town from TheStreet.com, and the folks at TheStreet.com understand that's the
way it has to be. I don't think I could tell Dan Colarusso from Gregg Wirth in a lineup. Which one
of those guys is George Mannes, I asked Dave the last time I was there. Dave ignored me,
ushering me to the exits. Hey, I just wanted to shake the guy's hand so as not to be rude. I don't
know if I have ever met Gail Griffin, who edits my copy each morning. Pretty weird. But I know
we will have no credibility otherwise. The last 10 hires? I have no idea who they are. Won't know
the next 10 either.
When you pass along a story idea about a specific stock to me and not Dave, I just throw it away.
Kansas won't take any ideas from me that came from you either. C'est la vie. And I like la vie.
That said, most people can't believe it. They complain to Jeff Berkowitz, my partner, that Cramer's
got to be able to convince Herb Greenberg that he shouldn't bash Dell (Nasdaq:DELL - news) .
Good luck with that one. I can't persuade Greenberg to go to BJ's (NYSE:BJ - news) over Costco
(Nasdaq:COST - news) . Do you know how many times I wanted to crack open the head of that
reporter who keeps writing negative articles about Cisco (Nasdaq:CSCO - news) ? But them's the
breaks. I don't have any control over it. I was long a ton of Tel-Save (Nasdaq:TALK - news) when
TheStreet.com first hammered the darn thing. Cost me big big bucks. But what could I do about it?
I didn't know it was coming. Dave and company don't know what I own and I don't tell them
anything different from what you see at the end of my articles.
That there is such skepticism about our electrified, razor-wired, mile-high wall between us is amazing
to me, because lots of people I worked with at Goldman Sachs maintained secrets that would have
been worth millions of dollars to me and it was unquestioned that they would have their lives
destroyed if they leaked that information. Everybody accepted that the M&A guys weren't in telling
me to get long General Foods, for Pete's sake. Takeover bids, large buyers, major-league sellers --
these were all protected by honor and secrecy. Same with TheStreet.com. Exactly the same.
Exactly.
Ah hah, you say, don't they work for me? Sure I am the largest shareholder in TheStreet.com, by a
plurality, but it is laughable to think that I could pressure Kansas to do anything. One phone call to
any reporter at any business desk in the country from Dave saying that I pressured him to kill a story,
and Cramer Berkowitz moves to Argentina. One call to the SEC and I blow my brains out.
I like it in the U.S. of A. I also like being alive. Like my work and my family, too.
So before you call and try to get me to do something with the copy of TheStreet.com, whether you
are an advertiser, or a subject, or a friend, or, even a president of a company I own shares in, may I
suggest that you forget about it? Not a chance.
On my mother's grave.
Enough said. |
