Commentator Dorfman Has Mild Stroke; Prognosis Good

Dan Dorfman, the controversial business journalist whose reports appear on the CNBC cable network, has suffered a mild stroke, the business network said Thursday.

CNBC said Dorfman was taken ill Tuesday afternoon and has been hospitalized but that his prognosis is excellent and he is expected to recover fully. In a statement, the network quoted the 64-year-old commentator as saying he is “alert, mobile and feeling very well.”

“He sounded fine. He’s doing very well,” said CNBC spokesman Philip Recchia, who said he had spoken with Dorfman.

At Dorfman’s request, Recchia declined to comment on where Dorfman is being treated. No other details on his illness were immediately available.

Dorfman, who covers the stock market and whose daily reports have been known to move stock prices, recently found himself engulfed in a swirl of controversy regarding his choice of news sources and other matters.

The raspy-voiced commentator was fired from a $450,000-a-year job writing a column for Money magazine on Jan. 1 for refusing to disclose confidential news sources to his editor.

Dorfman had been suspended indefinitely from the magazine in October following a news report that he was the target of a federal investigation for his relationship with a stock promoter.

Subsequent reports early this year said the investigation had been widened to include questions about whether Dorfman profited from his news commentaries by either trading on them or tipping others in exchange for favors.

Officials at the Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn have never confirmed or denied the reports, and Dorfman has denied wrongdoing.

CNBC has stood behind Dorfman and expressed support for him in the statement announcing his illness.