Reggie Bush' Lawyer Claims Yahoo Reporter Dan Wetzel Got Info Unethically - Sports Business Daily

I don't know if it makes any difference how the information was obtained -- someone gave it up. In other words, I don't know what law was broken in Dan Wetzel's actions if this is true.


ATTORNEY FOR REGGIE BUSH ALLEGES MISCONDUCT BY YAHOO SPORTS REPORTER

By Liz Mullen, Staff Writer, SportsBusiness Journal


Attorney Takes Umbrage To Yahoo
Sports Story On Reggie Bush

An attorney for Saints RB Reggie Bush today issued a statement alleging that a Yahoo Sports reporter falsely identified himself to gain confidential financial information for a report that Bush and his family received more than $100,000 in gifts from agents while he was at USC. David Cornwell, Bush’s attorney, said in a statement that a phone message left at a Northern California hotel seeking credit card information for an employee of Bush’s marketing agent was linked to Yahoo Sports reporter Dan Wetzel. “On Sept. 13, 2006, a person posing as an employee of Mr. Bush’s marketing agency, The SportsLink, makes repeated calls to a Northern California hotel seeking credit card information relating to such employee. In one call, the impersonator left a contact number that connects a caller directly to Yahoo,” the statement said. SportsLink is the company owned by Mike Ornstein, Bush’s marketing agent.

Wetzel did not immediately return a phone call. His byline was not on the story that alleged Ornstein and Michael Michaels, who owned a separate marketing company, gave more than $100,000 in cash and gifts to Bush and his parents.

“Contrary to Yahoo’s report,” Cornwell’s statement said, Bush’s parents “either paid or prepaid, in cash, for airline tickets, travel expenses, lodging and service charges relating to the trip from San Diego to Oakland.” Cornwell also said that, contrary to published reports, Bush’s parents owed no rent on a San Diego area home owned by Michaels as of early April ‘06.

Michaels’ attorney, Brian Watkins, could not be immediately reached for comment. Yahoo did not comment by presstime. Cornwell declined to comment beyond his statement.