MAGAZINE FIRES DORFMAN.

Byline: Skip Wollenberg Associated Press 

Dan Dorfman has been fired from Money magazine after its managing editor said the well-known stock market tipster refused to identify all the confidential sources for his columns.

But Dorfman got a vote of confidence Wednesday from another employer, television cable channel CNBC, and said the Time Inc. magazine made demands for disclosures that "no responsible reporter" could accept.

Dorfman also said he asked his attorney to begin arbitration proceedings, as provided by his contract with Time.

The dismissal from Money was effective Monday and comes as Dorfman's dealings with a stock promoter are reportedly being investigated by federal authorities looking for securities trading improprieties.

Industry commentators were leery about taking sides without knowing more details than Money magazine offered Wednesday about the background for its decision to fire Dorfman effective with the New Year.

"It's a tremendous risk to the news organization not to have at least one other person knowing who the source is," said George Harmon, an associate professor and director of the news-editorial program at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

"But I'm a little surprised that wasn't done upfront at Money," said Harmon, a former newspaper business editor in Chicago in the 1970s.

Dorfman had been hired by Money in late 1994, leaving his position as a stock market commentator for USA Today. Money publisher Time Inc.'s button-down culture and the magazine's monthly publication schedule struck some media watchers as ill-suited to Dorfman's pugnacious and frequently market-moving style of reporting.

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Photo (Color) Dan Dorfman Refused to divulge sources