One of the great non-mysteries of the internet was (kinda, sorta) resolved today when the New York Post's Roddy Boyd revealed that senior executive's of troubled online retailer Overstock.com were connected to a new website attacking the company's critics and shortsellers. Actually, the story behind AntiSocialMedia.net is still a bit conjectural. While Boyd notes that Overstock.com's CEO Patrick Byrne and its new media adviser have been supportive of the website, he stops short of accusing them of actually setting up and running the site. It's been widely suspected that Byrne's soft-hands were all over the AntiSocialMedia, thanks in large part due to the work of Gary Weiss, a frequent critic of Patrick Byrnes and the anti-naked shorting conspiracy theorists.
Today Weiss notes that anonymously attacking critics is not usually a good idea for corporations.
This corporate smear campaign is a kind of clumsy, low-rent version of General Motor's effort to harass, stalk and discredit Ralph Nader in the sixties.Anonymously harassing people over the Internet is a federal crime -- even when, as in this instance, the anonymous stalkers are cowering behind a sheet of cellophane.
GM wounding up eating crow, apologizing to Nader and paying damages. Given the miserable state of Overstock's business, as reflected in its share price, I doubt that there will be much left of Overstock when the smoke clears -- except the stench.
Update and correction: As a reader pointed out, the correct URL is antisocialmedia.net. An earlier version of this story used a dot com address.
Overstock.com lashes out at its critics on the web [New York Post]
Overstalk.com?[GaryWeiss.com]
Posted by asm , Jan 02, 2007 2:09PM
Quick point of clariication: the correct url is http://www.antisocialmedia.NET
(your story says .com)
thanks!
ASM
Posted by Scipio , Jan 02, 2007 6:37PM
Here's some corroborating evidence that smear site is an Overstock inside job. Note tha Patrick Byrne would not deny it when asked two different times. ASM itself does not deny it as the comment above shows.
There is also a few examples of clear lying carried out by this person, before there was an "official" Overstock relationship.
http://messages.finance.yahoo.com/Stocks_%28A_to_Z%29/Stocks_O/forumview?bn=24012
Posted by Scipio , Jan 02, 2007 6:40PM
Also note this site banned me from commenting when I pointed out some of the many flaws and misrepresentations on the site.
Posted by Scipio , Jan 02, 2007 6:44PM
I pasted in the wrong link above. It should be:
http://www.investorvillage.com/smbd.asp?mb=3532&mn=3037&pt=msg&mid=1090885
Posted by Tony Ryals , Jan 02, 2007 8:42PM
Roddy Boyd has been on this 'Phil Saunders' is behind it all thing for sometime now.No wonder he's still on the good side of the Rupert Murdoch disinformation machine while the much more credible Christopher Byron is gone.
I don't deny the possible existence of a 'Phil Saunders' but the reason it is disinformation for a defrauded investor such as myself,(conned into believing that ex SEC Commissioner Joseph Grundfest's Stanford University's involvement with Endovasc gave it much credibilty),is the fact that this Phil Saunders was not the one behind NAANSS or National Association Against Naked Short Selling(whose former website has been completely erased from the internet),that I'm sure the NCANS acronym was plagiarized from.
It was James Dale Davidson who is the founder of the National Taxpayers Union
near the SEC office in Alexandria,Virginia,(that Murdoch's pal Steve Forbes proudly campaigned for the Presidency of the U.S. as being a proud member of), who is also the founder of Agora Inc penny stock scam operation out of Baltimore and the world wide internet who was behind NAANSS along with Canadian penny stock fraudsters Brent Pierce and Grant Atkins.
I find it hilariously deceptive or incompetent of this Boyd fellow to be going on and on about a Phil Saunders he's never spoken to in his life and seems to have no way of doing so who is supposedly all the way out in California or Nevada or whatever(does he have a phone ?),while meanwhile Agora Inc is almost a local call away but Roddy Boyd can't seem to reach Bill Bonner and ask him why his partner Davidson founded NAANSS or why Jesse Eisinger got 'dirtydirtydeeds' so riled up in June of 2005 that he blurted out the name of James Dale Dvidson on the Yahoo NFI board and claimed Davidson who supposedly owns a boat by the same name was the one footing the bills for NCANS cell phones !
At this piont I don't trust the WSJ to give me the straight poop on all this much less Murdoch's boy Roddy Boyd ! You can still find that post from dirtydirtydeeds or ncans_d3 or the alias he posted it under at the time by doing a google search of one of my indymedia posts that has his complete tirade from the NFI message board about Eisinger at the time and his direct statement that James Dale Davidson was who the NCANS cell phones were provided by.
Another of the NCANS aliases on the Yahoo NFI board in 2005 started saying he knew Eisinger's parents and had been to their home and something about a dead human body that was found in the river near their home at some time or other.I sent that post to Eisinger myself but never used it in my posts out of respect for Eisinger and his parents privacy.Unfortunately it was removed from Yahoo to protect the penny stock mafia which Yahoo is all too happy to oblige.
So until one of you guys in New York posing as journalists finally does some journalistic investigation,like a local phone call to Bill Bonner in Baltimore for instance and review Davidson's old rants about the evils of naked short selling in his Vantage Point pump and dump mail fraud ops and internet posts(or in my personal email communication with him that is online),none of you have any credibility with me.
Is there something in the water up there in New York or is it the money that is used like a carrot and stick up there that makes you all appear like a horse that can't be lead to water ? Duh.
This Phil Saunders NEVER wrote an article about the evils of 'naked shorting' with his name on it but James Dale Davidson and Agora Inc did while pumping and dumping untold numbers of penny stock shares,particularly of Endovasc and Genemax(named for Davidson's far right newsmax.com ?)as he did so....
Posted by Sam E. Antar (former Crazy Eddie CFO & ex-felon) , Jan 03, 2007 2:29AM
Dear Pat:
Please avoid my mistakes if at all possible. Remember the “art of spinning.”
• Try not to have your actions at least appear to rise to the level of criminal conduct or a litigable action. Being stupid or being unethical is not always a crime or a tortuous action.
As a corporate insider you do not want to be accused of manipulating your company’s stock price through your public statements and actions in concert with others.
One more thing I need to remind you Pat (yes, I know you have heard this before):
• When you can no longer spin shut up. For example offer no guidance to investors or resign for “personal reasons.” Your surrogates and so-called friends can still speak on your behalf and defend you.
Respectfully,
Sam E. Antar
Former Crazy Eddie CFO & Ex-felon