Another FBN Lawsuit…

Talking Biz News scoops that FBN is preparing another lawsuit. This one is aimed at the SEC…

Fox Business Network is expected to file a lawsuit this afternoon against the Securities and Exchange Commission for failure to respond to Freedom of Information Act request.

The initial request to the SEC, filed on Feb. 26, 2009, sought all records relating to information that the SEC received regarding the potential violations of the securities laws or any other potential wrongdoing by R. Allen Stanford, or Stanford Financials Group and/or its affiliates.

Related: Portfolio’s Jeff Bercovici opines on all the FBN legal wrangling…

Now, nobody’s saying it wouldn’t be nice to know how Madoff was able to run his racket for so many years without ever arousing the suspicion of authorities. But Madoff isn’t the cause of our economic distress; he’s a symbol.

And that’s what this legalistic blitz by Fox Business is all about: symbolism. In fact, according to CJR, the network, lacking the reportorial resources to make much sense of the thousands and thousands of pages of documents it’s demanding, has no better plan than to put them all online and hope the internet hive-mind can ferret out the good stuff.

Magee insists the FOIA-palooza isn’t just some “wild publicity stunt,” but acknowledges it’s part of an overall strategy to different FBN from CNBC, which he calls “the friend of the CEO.” But it’s hard to see how Fox can exploit the perception that its rival is in bed with Wall Street while studiously refusing to condemn Wall Street. There’s too much anger out there to redirect it all at negligent referees.

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