FirstAlert 7/31: Dateline NBC Backdoors StockGate Sunday Night
July 31, 2005
(By Gayle Essary, Publisher of FinancialWire / FirstAlert)
The full behind-the-scenes story may never be known, but Dateline NBC apparently plans to air its long-awaited previously postponed "StockGate" story Sunday night at 7 p.m. Eastern Time and Pacific Time, and 6 p.m. Central and Mountain Time. Commercials for the show on CNBC Friday showed Ron Insana holding a copy of the Eagletech Communications (OTC: EATC) annual report, and saying that not all is as it seems.
The show apparently will include interview segments with the company's attorney, Wes Christian of Christian Smith & Jewell (http://www.csj-law.com) , which works with the more famous John P. O'Quinn, of O'Quinn, Laminack & Pirtle (http://www.oqlaw.com), and possibly will include a look at illegal naked short sales that the attorneys clam are associated with problems for shareholders at Eagletech, Jag Notes (OTC: JAGH) and others.
Compared to the original announced airing in February, this "possibly revamped" show is coming in almost in stealth mode. As of Saturday, Dateline's website, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032600 , still had no mention of this segment, which now appears to be the second feature instead of the first. It is not known if the story has been whittled down from an hour, or if the current length was always planned.
The show's new airing was first confirmed by Holly Pappas, legal assistant to Christian, who said in an email received by FinancialWire, that it had been confirmed to her by Sharon Hoffman, the show's producer. FinancialWire's efforts to get confirmation from Hoffman, however, had no such luck. Hoffman, who once exchanged emails freely with FinancialWire, stopped doing so after being asked after the initial "postponement" whether the segment was being recalled for re-editing, and whether any re-editing was being done by the editors and directors, or if it was occurring due to any influences from NBC Universal, General Electric or outside interference by, say, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp.
The refusal of editors at rival 60 Minutes at CBS to change their documentaries on "Big Tobacco" at the direction of then-owner Westinghouse after being leaned on by tobacco companies is famous. It became an award-winning Hollywood film, "The Insider," staring Al Pacino and Russell Crowe. Perhaps coincidentally, it is O'Quinn who won the landmark judgments against Big Tobacco on behalf of most of the states.
This sudden "postponement" of "StockGate," or whatever NBC is calling it ("StockGate" was a term coined by FinancialWire on December 29, 2003), became all the more suspicious because it came just after the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. published a letter from Larry Thompson, its counsel, on its front page at http://www.dtcc.com , answering criticisms in what appeared to be in anticipation of the then-impending Dateline airing.
The DTCC was furiously striking out all over the place at the time, seeking and getting still-questionable and possibly unconstitutional U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission "immunity" in the form of limited liability for "wilful misconduct or violations of Federal securities laws" (http://www.nscc.com/impnot/notices/notice2005/a6029.pdf), contesting the battering it had received over alleged counterfeiting of securities by an Investment Dealers Digest publication, and willfully violating the First Amendment distributions of FinancialWire (an action it admitted to in a letter posted at http://www.investrend.com/Admin/Topics/Articles/Resources/349_1113403487.pdf .
When the latter occurred, in a light-hearted exchange of emails with Hoffman at NBC, the publisher of FinancialWire jokingly warned Hoffman that NBC "could be next." Shortly afterwards, that possibility also became no laughing matter, as the segment was abruptly "postponed" in the same week it was to be aired, with NBC operators being given rather hastily prepared excuses regarding the need to fill the air time with breaking news that turned out to have been fully inaccurate. The segment instead was replaced with a rather inane segment on "The American Idol."
The DTCC has admitted to "fails to deliver" that on a daily basis add up to some $6 billion. These figures were given in the context of it being an "insignificant" amount in the overall daily trading, but it is enough to flatten the investments of individual small shareholders in 10,000 small companies such as Eagletech or JagNotes. Daily.
The airing also comes just as Investrend Information (http://www.investrendinformation.com), publishers of FinancialWire (http://www.financialwire.net), took to the streets Friday to exercise its First Amendment rights in a more direct fashion, handling out the attached leaflet to hundreds of the DTCC's employees and visitors entering its building at 55 Water Street. Investrend Information then took part in a First Amendment event sponsored by http://www.iwishtosay.org at the South Street Seaport.
The publishers were also interviewed by competitor Reuters and by the makers (http://www.counterfeitconspiracy.com) of "The Counterfeit Conspiracy" documentary, Fuego Entertainment. Also looking at the First Amendment violations is the Online News Association, of which FinancialWire is a member, and whose convention is nearing in New York city.
We have not ruled out proceeding with legal action over the media interference, but we received such a warm welcome from the employees of the DTCC, dozens of whom came out of the building specifically to obtain one of our flyers and to share with us many tales of grievances "inside the DTCC," that we may just return to the sidewalks from time to time and cement some developing relationships with those inside and out of the DTCC who don't approve of what attorney Marshal Shichtman called that organization's "strong-arm tactics."
In a poll being conducted at http://www.investrendinformation.com, just under 95% of all participants believe the DTCC should be "punished" for its violations of the First Amendment. Apparently the First Amendment is something that is dear to the hearts of the American people. To the framers of the Constitution, too, since it was the first loophole fixed!
If you have the email addresses of any of the management, employees or especially the Directors of the DTCC, please feel free to forward those persons the attachment and let them know that however they fare Sunday night on Dateline NBC, we remain curious to know if they approve of the First Amendment violations. In this way you can symbolically join us on the sidewalks right from the comfort of your computer.
The DTCC's directors, employees and their SRO parents, the NYSE and NASD, can drop us a note at contact@investrend.com to let us know if the DTCC is acting on their behalf.
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