The Best of RealMoney: Throwbacks to the Lou Grant Era

I love Herb Greenberg. He and I are both former newspapermen, and we are both throwbacks to the same gritty era, a time when reporters, far less refined than today, had to be yanked away from poker games when news broke out. Back then, there were typewriters and gluepots in newsrooms and, well, you get the idea.

Oddly enough, Herb and I actually are throwbacks to the same gritty newspaper. Although we never met until I joined TheStreet.com this summer, we both got our starts at The Miami News, a terrific afternoon daily that Cox deep-sixed shortly before the holidays in 1989. (Not that I'm still bitter, mind you. I'm sure Cox's executives had a nice Thanksgiving and Christmas that year.)

Herb hatched his career in Miami as a copy kid, occasionally coming under the direction of the late Larry Birger, a grouchy business editor who smoked smelly cigars and barked mercilessly at fresh-faced plebes. Let's just say that Larry Birger was a graduate of the Lou Grant Finishing School.

What was your favorite TV show with a journalism theme? Lou Grant Murphy Brown The Mary Tyler Moore Show Night Stalker Just Shoot Me

Like Lou Grant, Larry Birger, however, was as talented as he was cantankerous, and his hard-boiled approach rubbed off. Although Herb is a cupcake in comparison when it comes to demeanor, the RealMoney.com senior columnist has that same kind of drive and intensity as Birger when it comes to investigative business reporting. If I were the CEO of a big company, the last people I'd want to see at my front door first thing in the morning would be Greenberg and a 60 Minutes video crew.

On Nov. 30, for example, Herb was thumbing through The Wall Street Journal when he noticed an ad on Page A-5 from Fidelity Investments, in which Fidelity boasted about the phenomenal growth of 14 funds over one, five and 10 years. What caught his eye -- and nobody else's -- was that the funds' performances were as of Sept. 30. A lot has happened in the market since then, so he checked those numbers against the year-to-date figures.

In his Dec. 1 column, Is Fidelity Making Itself Look Better Than It Is?, Greenberg reported that the answer was a resounding yes. In The Wall Street Journal ad, Fidelity reported that its New Millenium Fund (FMILX Quote) had a one-year return of 65.5%. As of Nov. 29, however, that same fund's year-to-date return was off nearly 12%. In fact, all 14 funds were down since Sept. 30, some remarkably so.

That column was a revelation. But in all fairness, Herb was humming all week:

On Nov. 30, in Lessons of Lernout, Greenberg returned to one of his favorite haunts, Lernout & Hauspie (LHSP Quote).

Herb had a hunch something was wrong and was hot on Hauspie's trail early on. He took lots of unwarranted heat, but his stories were confirmed to be true once and for all on Nov. 29 when the software speech-recognition firm from Belgium filed for Chapter 11.

In Lessons of Lernout, Greenberg listed 11 reasons for investors to be wary, including a rapidly rising stock price, companies that don't take calls from journalists, and foreign firms that file only the minimum required financial statements with the SEC.

On the same day, Herb also pointed out a number of reasons why Gateway's (GTW Quote) sudden shortfall should been no surprise. According to Greenberg, there were warnings on top of warnings for everyone to see.

One of the joys of writing The Best of RealMoney is that it makes me peruse each day's submissions to RealMoney.com more carefully. The emails I receive from readers about their weekly favorites -- I'm glad to hear from you at [e-mail] -- also help when it comes to writing this regular Saturday feature.

This week, I believe, was the Web site's strongest since this column made its debut on Nov. 4. Because of that, it's hard to pick only a few highlights.

Todd Harrison is always a favorite of readers, and the glossary that he provided on Nov. 30 was fun. Are you having a drekky day? Do you think Elmer's next move will leave investors unglued? Is the thought starting to make you schvitz. If you aren't sure, give Todd-O a look.

Because I really have no clue where the market is heading, I love pieces that point out stocks or sectors in which money is being made.

Because of that, I enjoyed Jim Cramer's Stayin' Alive With the New High List on Nov. 27. The fact that somebody is being rewarded when I get a burger at Wendy's (WEN Quote) almost turns eating fast food into a selfless act.

For those who missed it, some of JJC's other favorite stocks to consider include Philip Morris (MO Quote), General Dynamics (GD Quote), Toll Brothers (TOL Quote) and Pulte (PHM Quote). And while I'm at it, I might as well wash down that spicy chicken sandwich with a Coors (RKY Quote). Again, a selfless act.

Don Luskin waded in similarly on Nov. 28 with Ideas From the Bottom of the Barrel, a piece on stocks from out-of-favor sectors that may be worth buying while everyone else is selling. Clarent (CLRN Quote), a software company whose stock has gone from $178 last March to $14 last week, is one of five companies Luskin mentions.

Another reader favorite, Lissa Morgenthaler, suggested on Nov. 28 that biotech indices, which tested support recently at their 300-day moving averages, will continue trending higher. And in For Biotech, This Time It's Different, she made a case for it by pointing out that the stocks of companies producing monoclonal antibodies have skyrocketed.

Lastly, columnist Bill Meehan deserves kudos not for any column in particular, but for a string of terrific predictions about the Nasdaq's many ups and downs in recent days. Figuring that out over the long term is difficult enough. But from day to day? That's nuts.

I wonder if he knows anything about horse racing?

Note: Thanks to telecom reporter and television junkie Carolyn Koo, and editors Sam (Night Stalker) Graff and Stacy Willits for help with the poll.