Tables Turned, Cramer Claims Defamation Over Dave Patch Comments In Stockgate Today / FinancialWire®
January 4, 2006 (FinancialWire) James Cramer, the ?Mad Money? guy at General Electric?s (NYSE: GE) CNBC and co-founder of TheStreet.com (NASDAQ: TSCM) is best known for his ascerbic attitude, quick retorts and no-holds-barred commentary about public figures, CEOs and public companies. But naked short gadfly Dave Patch has succeeded in getting his goat and Cramer clearly does not relish it when the tables are turned.
January 4, 2006 (FinancialWire) James Cramer, the ?Mad Money? guy at General Electric?s (NYSE: GE) CNBC and co-founder of TheStreet.com (NASDAQ: TSCM) is best known for his ascerbic attitude, quick retorts and no-holds-barred commentary about public figures, CEOs and public companies. But naked short gadfly Dave Patch has succeeded in getting his goat and Cramer clearly does not relish it when the tables are turned.
Because Patch?s article apparently appeared in FinancialWire, despite FinancialWire?s disclaimer that Patch?s views do not necessarily match those of FinancialWire?s, Cramer has threatened it as well. The emails were flying Tuesday. At the end of the day, even Overstock?s (NASDAQ: OSTK) CEO Patrick Byrne, whom Patch had copied, told Cramer he plans a ?little talk about you,? and asked Cramer what his ?sensibilities? are so as not to further hurt the television commentator?s feelings.
The tongue-in-cheek appeared to be tit-for-tat after Cramer?s recent column ?praising? Byrne.
Despite requests to do so, Cramer did not respond to a FinancialWire invitation to identify what Patch had said that ?defamed? him, as he had claimed, saying only that a ?reckless disregard for the truth? constitutes libel.
TheStreet.com General Counsel Jordan Goldstein in a separate email promised, ?I will provide, in short order, a list of the many factual inaccuracies and unsupported insinuations contained in the Patch article. Criticism is one thing; libel is quite another.?
At press time, the list had not been received, but FinancialWire has offered space as needed for Cramer & Company to recover his reputation or get his point across, whichever he or his attorney chooses. FinancialWire is also awaiting Cramer?s identification of the article or language that upset the applecart.
At the heart of the heat is naked short sales, which Cramer more or less claims is ?in your head,? and which Byrne believes could be the ?greatest financial scandal to hit our market system in the last hundred years.?
Patch?s website is investigatethesec.com . He recently received recognition by the multi-state task force investigating naked short sales when the head of the task force, Connecticut regulator Ralph Lambiase, credited Patch with bringing the manipulative trading practice to the regulator?s attention, and he appeared as well on CNBC.
Cramer?s final take, inexplicably after receiving a ?cc? in a thread started by his own counsel: ?Please stop cc?ing me.?
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