Time To Boycott GE, Dateline, And NBC?

Time to Boycott GE, Dateline, and NBC?

Apr 6, 2005

by Mark Faulk

Think back with me for a second to the good old days, when news was news, and entertainment was relegated to....well....the entertainment programs. As the line between news and entertainment becomes increasingly blurry, and as news itself is influenced by politics and special interest groups, and as even the news agencies and networks are slowly but surely absorbed by Corporate America, it has become increasingly difficult to rely on the major networks to tell us the truth.

Never has this been better illustrated than with the NBC Dateline Stockgate story. Heralded as a story that could "blow the roof off of the Stockgate scandal", The Faulking Truth first broke the story of Dateline's postponement of the segment in June of last year, after discovering that it had already been postponed from it's original date of January or February. Um, that's January or February of 2004, not 2005. At the time, we were assured by reliable sources that the show would air "sometime in August". We chastised Dateline for airing fluff piece after fluff piece, while sitting on the story that has been called "the biggest financial scandal in the history of the world, with incurred losses estimated by some experts at well over $1
trillion dollars". This is from that article, entitled "Is Dateline Losing Credibility Over StockGate Story Delays?" at http://www.faulkingtruth.com/Article...g101/1005.html :

The time for full disclosure is now. Dateline NBC owes it to the American people to release what information they have immediately, and if necessary, air a followup segment as the story continues to develop. As the Associated Press and rival CBS show 60 Minutes recently pointed out, "In one month, NBC's signature newsmagazine devoted some five hours of programming to the season finale of 'The Apprentice' and the series finales of 'Friends' and 'Frasier.' " If The Donald, Ross, Rachel, and Fraiser rate five hours of coverage in one month on what is supposed to be a major news show "bringing viewers compelling investigative reports", then surely the "biggest financial scandal in the history of the world" is worth a segment or
two.

So....how did Dateline respond? They postponed the Stockgate segment again and again, leaving investors feeling used and abused by those who could have championed their cause and taken their case to a nationwide audience. Here we are, well over a year after the first proposed air date, and finally, FINALLY, Dateline scheduled the by now mythical story for April 10....this Sunday. Hallelujah! Justice, though moving slower than Father Time himself, would finally prevail. (Read "FINALLY! Dateline to Air Stockgate Segment April 10th" at http://www.faulkingtruth.com/Article...g101/1022.html )

Not so fast, America. Nine days after Dateline producer Sharon Hoffman confirmed the April 10 airdate, and only four days before millions of Americans would presumedly learn the true story of how millions of investors have been defrauded in a massive "stock counterfeiting" scheme right under the noses of the SEC and, according to many experts, aided and abetted by the SEC, NASD, and the DTCC, the story was postponed....yet again.

The official stance taken by Dateline, and repeated by Hoffman, the front office, and anyone else who got the memo, was that their entire schedule had been reshuffled due to "a very busy news cycle" that included the death of the Pope, Prince Ranier's death, and Prince Charles wedding. So which of those breaking news stories preempted the Stockgate segment this Sunday? None of them. Instead, viewers will get to see, according to the Dateline website, " 'American Idol' star Ruben Studdard discuss his latest gospel album and how his life has changed since beating Clay Aiken on the second season of 'American Idol".

So there you have it. Last year, the finales of Friends and Frazier took precedent over the concerns of American investors (and judging from recent events, the scheme has worked it's way back into Canada and Berlin again), and almost a year later, A pop singer from a reality TV show has been deemed more important than helping to expose what could very well be the worst scandal in the history of the stock market. Entertainment as news. Fluff over substance.

This is how Dave Patch described it just today in his online newsletter "Stockgate Today" ("Dateline Special on Naked Shorting Postponed" at http://www.investigatethesec.com/ ):

"Dateline, having locked out most of the media from access to the details of this issue with exclusive rights to the lawyers and consultants researching the evidence, forgot that exclusive rights carries the burden of ethical behavior especially with such a large class of victims. This wasn’t a 'when I get around to it' story although that has obviously been how they have treated it."

How much money has been lost because so-called "news agencies" like Dateline have sat on this story while the corruption continues unchecked? How many untold millions or hundreds of millions of dollars have been robbed from the small investor while those who could help sit on their collective corporate hands? Maybe in time, that question will finally be answered. Maybe in time, Dateline will have the nerve to live up to their reputation as the "one-hour newsmagazine that delivers in-depth coverage of news events and investigates subjects of all kinds", and re-discover the approach that has made the show "the most honored news program on television, with 28 Emmy Awards, 26 Edward R. Murrow Awards, two George Foster Peabody Awards, three Alfred I. Dupont Awards, 28 American Women in Radio and Television Gracie Awards, 37 National Headliner Awards, 24 Clarion Awards, five Sigma Delta Chi Awards, and five Overseas Press Club Awards."

When we first broke this story ALMOST A YEAR AGO, we questioned the integrity of Dateline and NBC. Now, eight moths later, that charge is worth repeating:

"The shelving of this important expose' by Dateline NBC raises some very important moral and ethical issues, in this writer's opinion. If in fact they have collected information that would help to put a stop to the massive criminal activity that is robbing American companies and their stockholders of literally hundreds of millions of dollars every day, aren't they at the very least morally obligated to release that information in a timely fashion? And since they have postponed the show for the last four months, shouldn't they release attorneys O'Quinn and Christian from their exclusivity contract, so that they can disseminate information that might be vital in helping the victimized companies, their shareholders, and the various governing bodies put to end this ongoing corruption? And if in fact the money being stolen from honest Americans is being used to fund terrorism and organized crime, then shouldn't Dateline immediately make public any information that could help put an end to those insidious activities?"

All I know is this: if Dateline doesn't reschedule the Stockgate story....and soon, and doesn't give it the attention it deserves, or if they cave in to alleged pressure from the DTCC and the SEC, then it's time for Americans to "vote with their pocketbooks", and boycott NBC AND their parent company General Electric. THAT'S a voice that even Dateline can't ignore, and that's the Faulking Truth. [more]

http://www.faulkingtruth.com/Article...yToo/1028.html

StockGate: 9 Days To Dateline NBC And DTCC Warms Up With Still..2005/04/01 02:46:11

More Media Attacks

(financialwire.net via COMTEX) -- April 1, 2005 (FinancialWire) It's 9 days until the airing of the Dateline NBC expose on illegal manipulative shortselling, scheduled by the General Electric (NYSE: GE) network Sunday night, April 10, and the Depository Trust and Clearing Corp., quiet during two years of StockGate, has suddenly moved to almost daily attack mode.

Even the Nasdaq-100 (NASDAQ: QQQQ), whose tennis tournament is airing on Disney's (NYSE: DIS) ESPN, now appears on the Regulation SHO Threshhold list, as does Overstock (NASDAQ: OSTK), whose CEO, Patrick Byrne, is featured in a new video advertorial sponsored by the National Coalition Against Naked Short Selling.

The DTCC's newest target is EuroMoney, the prestigious magazine that is considered the Bible of European financial institutions. The DTCC says EuroMoney's comprehensive series on "naked short selling," which the DTCC's counsel, Larry Thompson recently stated he finds no evidence exists, is just "sloppy journalism."

The DTCC said that the article in the April issue "fails to reflect any true understanding of the complicated securities clearing and settlement programs it discusses, fails to report that most of the litigations mentioned in the article have, to date, been dismissed or withdrawn, and, perhaps most egregiously, accepts as true erroneous characterizations of DTCC's stock borrow program."

"For example," according to Thompson, First Deputy General Counsel, "the Euromoney article mentions a lawsuit, Sporn v. Elgindy, in which DTCC was named as a defendant, but fails to tell its readers that last month a federal judge dismissed this complaint in its entirety."

The DTCC said it will similarly seek dismissal of the amended complaint filed by the plaintiff.

Thompson said the article "largely parrots irresponsible allegations asserted by lawyers in various litigations filed around the country against DTCC and numerous broker dealers.

Other examples of errors in the article included mentions of a "lending pool" that doesn't exist, no mention of the fact that neither DTCC nor its subsidiaries have the power to force buy-ins by member firms, and the fact that DTCC is not required under Reg SHO or any other U.S. regulation to release confidential customer information on the number of fails to issuers, only to regulators and markets.

In a direct dig, Thompson told Euromoney in a letter to the editor, "As a publication covering capital markets globally, we would have expected you to give greater care to this type of story. There wasn't any effort to fact-check assertions in the story with us or to verify how DTCC actually processes trades, which is really troubling.

"DTCC has been an integral part of the capital market system in the U.S for over 30 years, providing automated post-trade processing of $1 quadrillion in securities transactions in 2004. We're one of the most highly regulated companies in the world (by the SEC, the Federal Reserve and the New York State Banking Department).

"We will not accept silently this type of sloppy, one-sided journalism whether in print or broadcast," said Thompson, apparently in a warm-up to the expected onslaught of public opinion after the upcoming Dateline NBC network telecast.

It was the second public statement issued to the press in as many days.
The DTCC, which is run under the joint authority of the New York Stock Exchange and NASD, both government-sponsored SROs, may even have run afoul of serious laws against interference with the press, according to attorney Marshal Shichtman, Esq., who is investigating the organization's purported collusion with Investors Business Daily in an attempt to censor or squelch further distribution of FinancialWire.

The video advertorial, which also features the closeted head of the National Coalition Against Naked Short Selling, Bob O'Brien, Georgetown University Associate Professor James Angel and individual victims, is at http://tinyurl.com/5vq8y

"This is America. And we are being fleeced," said O'Brien of the video in his blog. This comes hard on the heels of an ad in the New York Times (NYSE: NYT) from The Washington Legal Foundation, located at http://www.wlf.org, which has considerable clout in the Bush administration, with ten of its board members now serving in various capacities, including three, headed by U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, in the Bush cabinet. Its "In All Fairness" advertorial, "What's Up With The SEC?" may be seen at http://www.wlf.org/upload/032805IAFSEC.pdf

The advertorial alleges that class action lawyers are colluding with short sellers "right under the noses of SEC investigators," whose abuses cause "investors, employees, pensioners and companies" to "lose millions of dollars in stock value each year."

The WLF said that the SEC has been "sitting on several complaints of misconduct" that it and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have filed that detail "examples of questionable stock manipulation by short sellers and class action attorneys."

The group says that the SEC is "looking the other way while class action attorneys enjoy a free-for-all, reaping millions in windfall fees to the detriment of shareholders," and asks "why isn't the SEC taking legal and regulatory action to prevent stock manipulation and to protect investors from the looting by plaintiffs' lawyers? Shouldn't there be rules and oversight to deter these trial lawyer abuses?"

It concludes that "the SEC must show America that it can get tough with more sinister villains thatn Martha Stewart."

Late last week, Motley Fool lambasted regulators for letting what it called "71-year-old laws" against naked short selling go unenforced. The article is at http://www.fool.com/news/commentary/2005/commentary05032407.htm?source=eptyholnk3 03100&logvisit=y&npu=y

Recently U.S. Senator Robert Bennett (R-UT), pointedly questioned SEC Chair William Donaldson about naked short selling, and what he said was a failure by the SEC to enforce existing laws.

A video of the exchange is at http://www.investrendinformation.com
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What is the DTCC??

http://www.dtcc.com/AboutUs/history.htm