I'll tell you what I told Tool privately. I'm willing to write an outline for a story that he and the others could look at. If they agree, then I'd go ahead and write the article. Approval of the outline would be their last official involvement in the project, though I'd be happy to show them the story before it goes to press. But at that point, the only two people with the power to make changes would be me and the RS editor.
I've also said I won't write anything having to do with NSS and the Get Shorty campaign. People like Patch have zero credibility with the people who count. And in any case, this story isn't about NSS. BCIT and GVRP are special situations, and they should be the focus of the story. The thrust of the story should be the incompetence of the brokerages, the SEC, and the NASD when faced with a problem they don't know how to deal with.
Rolling Stone is a serious publication, and they won't tolerate unsupported accusations concerning MMs and the like. I doubt they'll allow that much space in any case. How the story is written obviously depends a great deal on the word count. Neither do I think this is the moment to write a "who's to blame?" article. We don't yet know the whole story, and we won't for some time. So if I write it there won't be much about Mario or Megas either.
Remember: this would be read by a general audience. They probably wouldn't be interested in a lengthy chronicle of who may or may not have done what, but I think they would sit up and take notice were they to read a story about how the SEC fails to respond to shareholders' problems, and how the brokerages did nothing but sow further confusion.
