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Microcap & Penny Stocks : ABTX - Agribiotech -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: taxman who wrote (7605)	2/25/1999 9:41:00 AM
From: John S. Baker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 8359

"since i use bloomberg, among other services, for making investment decisions, were any of its reports on this company false or misleading?" Opinion here ... buttressed from years of analyzing non-financial reporting for bias in my earlier profession: There is a difference between errors of fact and errors of interpretation (or "spin", "slant", "approach", etc.) Chances are that most of the true facts (call 'em data points, if you wish) presented by Bloomberg ... and specifically in its reportage by David Evans ... were close enough to accurate as to be unchallengeable. The bias often occurs in the process of converting data points into a published article. When faced with conflicting data points, a good reporter always tries to weigh the strengths and validity of the various data points in order to arrive at his portrayal of the truth. IMHO, Evans was far less skilled at this process than one would have expected from a (formerly) reputable national news service. His weighting of data points was different from mine. The entire emphasis of his stories was more negative than many of us now believe to have been the truth. But if you ask Evans, he probably would say, "I was right all along. The company was running out of cash. It was doing desperate-appearing things. The stock did tank. And the CEO was a jackass." His motivation? I dunno. Could be that he wanted to be the guy that exposed crookedness within a company. Look at the fame and notoriety which came with the Cendant exposures. Could be that he just dislikes capitalism. Could be that this became a personal vendetta for him (in which case an editor should have stepped in). Could be that, unknown to us, he was under intense pressure from his bosses to "produce" or to get out, so he picked ABTX. But in the long run, you or I would be hard pressed to prove Evans wrong enough in a court of law to prevail ... in anything. But I have very little respect for him as a gatherer and arranger of data points. As a reporter, he did not IMHO seek a balance which presented the true situation. I, for one, will not take a Bloomberg article as representing "the truth" ever again. JSb.

To: taxman who wrote (7605)	2/25/1999 5:36:00 PM
From: david cameron	Respond to of 8359

If you use Bloomberg and you invest based on what you read I can't help you as I don't and probably won't. Others, since you posted have presented you with some reasons for being hesitant about the validity of the Bloomterd news as written for ABTX. I was there and after reading his, David Evans, report wondered if someone had taken my memory away. As I remember his article there were about 13 points all with a negative slant. And this came from a meeting that is planned to accentuate the positive. Nothing was said as to finally getting the accounting together but deciding to hold up implementation so they would not disrupt the selling season. Nothing was said about the employee team that was in place. Nothing was said about the research alliances. Nothing was said about completing a re-evaluation of all assets, fixed and or human. Reporting is one thing commentary is another. My opinion? I see commentary not reporting and I don't trust it. I would turn off a bloomie machine if I was forced to have it on my desk. Or, better yet toss it out the window like the ad on TV. As to false, there have been several that have been outright false, some would call them wrong. They were retracted in a somewhat sinister way. Rather than dig up that horse again go over to Yahoo and do a search. Bloomtyrd has had lots of publicity on that site. I know what I saw and heard and it was similar to the other recent posters here. ABTX has a foundation, they have good people, they are solving many of their problems and they are capable.