On April 26, 2006 Charles Gasparino delivered this story regarding SEC Chairman Chris Cox’s testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

As a prefatory comment, however, I should note that as far as I can tell, Charles Gasparino is the only honest reporter at CNBC (Donny Deutsche is honest but he is not a reporter, and Becky Quick is a reporter, but she does not go out of her way to be honest or dishonest).

There is, I believe, something important to be learned from this fact. Most Wall Street reporters I meet seem soft. A few are dumb (don’t ask Joe Nocera, Roddy Boyd, or Tim Mullaney to whip up a batch of jet-fuel for you) but most are just soft. They may be capable of writing critical pieces regarding this or that executive or company, if spoon-fed the requisite details by their hedge fund sources, but they are constitutionally incapable of thinking critically about the Establishment from whence they spring.

Hence, for example, as previous posts have shown, CNBC adopted a Party Line that recognized no distinction between short selling and naked short selling, insisted that Patrick Byrne’s beef is just that his stock went down, short selling always builds strong bones and teeth for America, and anyone questioning this received wisdom must be wacky wacky wacky. This Party Line was parroted with fervor by Herb Greenberg, Jim Cramer, Joe Kernan, Dan Colarusso, and the rest of the CNBC gang.

Charles Gasparino, on the other hand, is a tough working-class Italian guy from the Bronx. He is not soft and, as as a result, he had the character to speak up. This makes Gasparino seem extraordinary. In fact, however, I think he is how normal journalists were, one or two generations ago.