Medical Marijuana Inc (MJNA)

[nopancakemix]

A Great Comment Regarding Analysts

This was posted on a private A@PL board I have been on since 2006. The comment is in response to a Phillip Elmer Dewitt article about how flawed even professional analysis can be. It has some great perspective on market comments and gives insight into many of the attacks against MJNA. Ironically, it talks about WR Hearst, a major anti-MJ activist who used fear, ignorance and media influence to spread his lies.

"You are spot on with your article. I have been investing for 40 years. I have concluded over the past few years that the vast majority of analysts are nothing but whores in search of the street corner with the brightest light. Any rumor that can get their articles hits is worthy of peddling whether the rumor has any basis in fact or not. What has happened to honest journalists/analysts who vet their sources before publishing something that ultimately is nothing but a pure fabrication and worse yet impact the markets? What facts were brought to light last year as hedge funds sold shares of Apple en masse while small investors were left holding the bag? Small investors relied on the likes of Jim Cramer who attributed the selling to year-end tax planning by the hedge funds to capture gains at lower 2012 tax rates. He implied after the beginning of the year that shares would be bought back only to back peddle when the buying never happened. But that’s OK. CNBC makes sure to have legal disclaimers to protect their yellow journalism.

I question CNBC in particular. It seems that their raison d’etre is to be the modern day William Randolph Hearst of business “news”. Maybe, instead of leading the nation to war, they can sensationalize to the point that we have a major stock market crash. What value is there in interviewing the likes of John Sculley to comment on Apple? This is the same guy that drove Steve Jobs out of Apple and destroyed Apple to the point it was on life support. What value is there in interviewing Bob Nardelli for his opinion on business issues? This is the man who failed Home Depot and destroyed Chrysler. Why would anyone want to hear the opinions of Henry Blodget? He touted stocks in public only to “allegedly” disparage the same stocks in internal Merrill Lynch e-mails. The “allegations” led to Blodget being charged with civil securities fraud, his agreement to be permanently banned from the securities industry and the payment of millions in fines. Apparently his “ban” doesn’t include commenting on the securities industry as CEO and Editor-in-Chief of Business Insider and contributor to so-called “reputable” business publications.

If it doesn’t exist, you should start a blog that critiques analysts by name. At a minimum someone needs to identify to the small investor those analysts who are consistently wrong. Ideally it would be wonderful to have an investigative journalist determine whether these guys are just incompetent or have an ulterior motive for their articles. Hopefully such a blog could lead to enough of a public outcry that these clowns can be held legally and financially accountable for their actions (wishful thinking, I know!).

Thanks again for a great article."