ned because of the merger talks. That sug- gested someone at AT&T Wireless as the source of the leaks, but fig- uring out how Keller got the story was not my primary concern at the moment. Nor were the hamburgers. I told Keller that, as he knew, we didn't comment on this kind of rumor, but just to be sure we weren't going to change our policy in this instance, I would check with Zeglis. I called Zeglis, and we de- cided to leave things as they were. It didn't sound as if Keller had much, and these rumors were popping up all the time. Zeglis wasn't even sure he'd call Allen about it. The next day's Wall Street Journal demonstrated how a good re- porter can turn the slimmest facts into a front-page 2,526-word story. What Keller knew could be put into a single compound sentence: Sources close to both companies say that merger discussions between SBC and AT&T had grown very serious in the last month, causing AT&T to postpone some wireless business transactions, even though many issues had not yet been resolved and both companies realized that approval of such a merger would face many obstacles. The other 2,474 words were based on Keller's own knowledge of the companies and interviews with people who knew nothing of the merger discus- sions themselves but had an opinion about them. Of course, once the Wall Street Journal declares something to be news, it is news, even if it technically isn't. The news wires picked up the story, as did the next day's newspapers. Merrill Lynch's analyst, Dan Reingold, published an investor note saying that the deal would never be approved. Nevertheless, AT&T stock surged $1.38 (4 percent). CNBC jumped in with a report that John Walter would be CEO of the merged companies, leaving Ed Whitacre as non-executive chairman. Allen was furious. As far as he was concerned, the leak had come from John Walter or someone close to him. ² Whoever had leaked the Tough Calls information wanted to crater the deal. Allen was convinced that SBC was still interested in moving forward. In fact, Whitacre had