Re: 1/14-15/06 - [OSTK] Selected interaction between NY Post reporter Roddy Boyd, NCANS's Bob O'Brien, and OSTK's CEO Patrick Byrne
Re: Why I Stopped Using My Brain, or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Wall Street By Roddy Boyd on 1/14/2006 2:21 PM
Bobo.
Those are some fine papers, but the biz section is well read and followed in Wall Street. Deal with it.
You dont like the fact that i stood up who you are? aw. Odd. do better than that.
My editor wants me to break some hard news on NSS, not some ponderous crap on the NASAA's group therapy session.. I spent weeks chasing down stuff based on tips from Byrne's buddies that something was happening at the state level--its not.
oh, and do better than comparing my email to Tim's...totally different. Even a fraidy bunny like yourself can see that.
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Re: Why I Stopped Using My Brain, or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Wall Street By Roddy Boyd on 1/14/2006 5:28 PM
XT--Gradient legal argument on Bobo? Respectfully, I dont take your point.
I have never talked to Rocker's defense counsel in NJ...dont recollect their names.
I talked to Doug Curtis at Wilmer Cutler once in Nov., back when he was repping them. He outlined their SLAPP motion to me. In early December I talked to him again and he told me why they resigned. thats it.
never met Rocker; met vickery once, for 15 mins.
dont see your point on research for them. Finding out about Bobo, NCANS et al. is valid. They are prime mover in the NSS movement.
I have no problems with Patrick Byrne criticizing me or the NYP. Media criticism is everyone's right, and to a lesser extent, it is a crucial component to PB's miscreant ball thesis. I am not without flaw as a man and reporter and listen to all reasonable points.
I have no involvement or connection to either side in this fight. My work has been cited in many arbitrations and legal filings going back to when I was at Inst'l Investor. It is public record; there is nothing I can or should do about it.
I do not know either Carol or Bill. I have never met Bethany or Herb, although I have briefly had email contact with them related to this story when i was mentioning their names. Beyond that, nothing.
I have told Patrick and Bobo that it would be a blessing and a half to have a fact cut their way--conspiracies make great copy. Unfortunately, I cant see that they have the balance of facts in their favor. The first three affiants--none of which had their affadavits attached to the OSTK suit--were customer service reps fired for cause. I spoke to dozens of Gradient clients and none had recollection of what they alleged. No clients even dealt with them on research issues. No Gradient office in Wa. Herb's former research assistant--who hadnt worked with HG in 18 months-- wasnt hired at Gradient.
Read my above post. I think OSTK will be around for years. I just dont see how an honest reporter can avoid mentioning that they likely have some real economic issues.
Roddy
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Re: Why I Stopped Using My Brain, or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Wall Street By Roddy Boyd on 1/14/2006 5:42 PM
bobo--
You are a scared man. And weak. There is nothing incorrect about the name I have addressed you with. It is yours. And to think I treated you with decency when i came up with your identity. Your house though, I'll take my shoes off.
that said, I conflated NCANS and Sanity Check. I take that. let me offer an apology, man to man. Libel? ha. you jest with the wrong man on this. Read the law and come back to me.
Patrick has 4 affidavits from ex-gradient employees that i have heard of. 1 data-entry person and 3 salesmen, two of whom were fired for cause. I have heard that two of them have indicated they are willing to publicly distance themselves from them. Again, show me--or get PB too-- someone involved in the research process there who acknowledges changing or modifying an opinion baed on implicit or explicit pressure from a client.
a great story if it happened. So far, I cant get a damn soul to say it has.
Niel and Willy Gambler--I take your point. Actually, I think NSS is a bigger problem than many skeptics. I have written several times on it, and been widely praised by the likes of the guy who insists on being called Bobo.
If i have the oppty to write a piece on retai issues of NSS, then Ill include Byrnes delivery woes.
Like I said, NSS is real. ANd so is reporting on OSTK's economic woes. None of which have a damn to do with NSS.
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Re: Why I Stopped Using My Brain, or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Wall Street By Roddy Boyd on 1/14/2006 6:37 PM
Rtway1--your right, I'll do better. 2nd time on camera. have to say though, came back stronger in the second segment. still get nervous as all get out. sorry bout your cat, sorry that you dont believe a word i write or said. do well, Roddy.
Bobo--im not speculating on your identity; Ive proved it. no slurs, cusses nor epithets. what's your beef? again...i had the bit that Alpert ran weeks before hand and didnt run it. got easily as much as eisinger or anyone else and kept it to a minimum. Been a fair guy all and all to you. I sign my name and wade in to make my case; you got a lot of other reporters willing to play here?
actually, ill call you on that bit about Bettis. I bet that he has called the 4 affiants up, or 2 of them, and threatened them with libel or perjury.The only threats--and lets assign some value to the word--i know about--have come from Jim Holohan and his PI staff. You know that Jim is an NYC PI who works full time for Patrick right? Hes playing mighty rough.
I bet if I write an article about whose played rougher, PB's guys, by his own admission, would come out on top. Dont believe me? Look at some of the recent juducal commentary about how Wes Chritian plays....think its judge janice jack.
on nss, have been pressing legal sources inside refco to see what those cheese dogs had....man, talk about sisyphean tasks...
eat your carrots now....Roddy
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Re: Why I Stopped Using My Brain, or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Wall Street By Patrick on 1/15/2006 8:41 AM
Folks,
Save your breath with Roddy. His schtick is to pretend to be listening, to be open-minded, in roder to get out of you folks anything he can, before writing a ridiculous piece in the service of his masters.
So for example, he had the affadavits and never wrote a story on them. Only at last, when the party line response had been worked out, did he write it up, completely taking the party line response as his own and pretending it was established fact. He did not report that the affiants' say that they went to their boss, asked questions, and got fired, then sat down and wrote a letter to the SEC: instead, he just spun it all as disgruntled ex-employees, and chose not even to mention their point of view (nor any details of the affadavits).
And so it goes: he is a complete phony. Don't buy his, "I think there is a real business, but they may have some problems" stuff. It is just his schtick.
As far as teh affiants go: yes, the bad guys ahve been calling and threatening them ("I can ruin your life, I can make it so you never get another job, don't worry what happens if you recant your affadavits, I'll pick up all the legal costs"). Who knows what else has been promised.
Fortuntely, given how many people they have told their story to at his point, including not only lawyers from other companies, but federal officials, no amount of Carr Bettis money is going to change things.
As far as the New York PI: I have never heard of him, nor of any rough tactics, nor would I condone any rough tactics such as the ones they are using. Be aware, all, that these are not normal humans with a slightly different viewpoint, the truth is somewhere in the middle, etc. etc. These are sociopaths who not only have no trouble lying, they will lie and then give each other chortling high-fives that they got away with it.
However, I do feel they realize they made a huge mistake this week. Catching two reporters with teh same verbiage in emails, on the same day. They seem to be in damage control mode, so they send Roddy out with his sycophantic, "I'm not sure, all I'm saying" etc. etc., covering his mild spins. (At this point, it would be hard to Tim to show up and do it himself, so thoroughly has he unmasked himself in his own email.)
Believe me, I have dealt with these guys, don't buy their tone: they are sociopaths.
Strangely, they all have one quality that is exactly the same across each of them: I am struggling to put my finger on it, but it is hard to express. Have you ever met someone who is like a glass figurine that has been broken, but then glued back together again? But if you look with the right eyes you can still see the crack in them ? That is how each one of these bent reporters is. It's sad: I keep wanting to reach out and say, It's OK, calm down, you're OK. They each feel like they are going to crack again (other than Eissenger: he has accepted the Dark Side). So do not hate them. They are just trying to find a way out too, and what we have presented them with is creating a lot of psychic discord (even they cannot think of themselves any longer as journalists crusading against corproate malfeasance, given the amount of evidence they are having to sweep aside). And in their emotional confusion they are starting to make mistakes, as we have witnessed in the last week. If this were a movie one of them would wake-up, realize that their way out of their dilemma is to break with their masters and start covering what was really going on: I've met them and that will never happen here (I've met people who were that person flaws-and-all, but none of them is that person). So don't hate these guys: they are each in their own private hells, of one sort or another. But don't buy their schticks.
Patrick
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