In a now infamous interview that Jim Cramer gave to TheStreet.com’s Aaron Task back in 2006, the host of CNBC’s “Mad Money” defined “fomenting.”
“You can’t foment,” Cramer said. “That’s a violation. You can’t create yourself an impression that a stock is down. But you do it anyway because the SEC doesn’t understand it. That’s the only sense that I would say that it is illegal. But a hedge fund that is not up a lot really has to do a lot now to save itself.”
“This is actually blatantly illegal,” Cramer stated flatly, “but when you have six days and your company may be in doubt because you are down, I think it is really important to foment. If I were one of these guys, foment an impression that [Company X] isn’t any good, because [Company X] is the key today.”
Cramer explained, “It’s important to get people talking about it as if something is wrong with [Company X]. Then you would call the [Wall Street] Journal and talk the bozo reporter on [Company X] and you would feed that [Company Y] has got a killer it is going to give. These are the things that you must do… And if you are not doing it, maybe you shouldn’t be in the game.”
With that definition in mind, and in light of the SEC article we just posted, which media outfit, and/or individuals, if any, do you believe is the worst Apple (AAPL) fomenter? And, please include examples (links) to specific instances if you have them. If you don’t believe the media outlets and/or an individuals would do such a thing, please let us know, too, as we have a rather large-sized bridge in Brooklyn for sale that you’ll surely love.
TheStreet.com’s Scott Moritz and Gary Krakow
Go Cramer!
TheStreet.com’s Moritz: Apple’s ‘iFlop’ tablet ‘shelved’ until 2010 – Thursday, May 21, 2009
MDN
Sorry, but what does a 2006 Interview have to do with Today’s News ?
Is there a link we’ve missed ?
BC
CNET. Thousands of articles, at least.
I think CNET by far has done more to attempt to damage Apple.
ZDNet has contributed too but frankly they are both pretty useless sites, existing only to attract pageviews for their owners. The quality of the gear reviews on CNET is now laughable and ZDNET which used to be credible has sunk to the level of “hit-whore” posting obvious stories designed only to attract the attention of nubes and fanbois…
Besides Moritz and TheStreet.com, any outlet that uses the quote-for-hire Rob Enderle.
pr:
They’re one and the same:
In October 2000, CNET Networks, Inc. acquired ZDNet for approximately US$1.6 billion. ZDNet remains a core brand for CNET Networks today.
More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZDNet
@ BC Kelly
What part of “in light of the SEC article we just posted” did you not understand?
Foment I didn’t know what yous was talkin bout.
Doug Kass of the Street.com fomenting fear around Mr. Job’s health issues, stock options backdating issues, etc.
Also, I recall an online video at the Street.com by their “tech guru” Gary Krakow when the iPhone came out, that was woefully wrong and illogical in predicting the iPhone’s serious problems and probable demise.
Almost every day I wonder why Cramer is not in prison.
@pr
I’m with you on ZD-NET – they’ve been shrilly trumpeting the failures of Snow Leopard since it came out. Nonsensical.
@Fred Mertz
I did not realize that ZDNet was acquired by CNet. I stopped visiting ZDNet years ago because I felt that the depth, relevance, and credibility of their articles on Apple were in serious decline. The cause is now apparent.
+1 more vote for ZDNet –
blatant hit whores. See today’s article on how snow leopard missed the boat on enterprise adoption….
Do You have a Shot Gun? If so just put all the Financial Media Outlets Print & Broadcast and the Bloggers too, in the Street in front on the NADAQ Building on Wall Street point the shot gun their direction and pull the trigger. You can do the same thing with the analysts and the Fund Managers too. Because they are all most all guilty. Even the Huffington Post that published the last story is guilty of fomenting as the story itself is a foment of the truth. The Huffington post makes it sound as though someone inside Apple is doing the trading, when in fact the writer nor the interviewed Hedge Fund trader know who or what activities the SEC might be looking at. The Hedge fund Trader has spun it to make it look like insider trading to make Apple look bad. The fact is the SEC as not said what activity they are looking at.
foment |ˈfōˌment; fōˈment|
verb [ trans. ]
1 instigate or stir up (an undesirable or violent sentiment or course of action) : they accused him of fomenting political unrest. See note at incite .
Similar to: instigate, incite, provoke, agitate, excite, stir up, whip up, encourage, urge, fan the flames of
If you want to know all about Cramer and his fomenting you need to read the deepcapture.com blog. It’s an eyeopener.
http://www.deepcapture.com/category/1-the-players/
The stock market has always favored institutional investors and wealthy investors because they have the most complete and timely knowledge and immediate access for initiating trades. In addition these investors utilize all of the investment tools (currency hedging, options, stop limits, etc.) to maximize profits and minimize the associated risk. In addition to that, investors at the highest levels have access to sophisticated program trading algorithms to take advantage of short term stock price fluctuations (such as the rises/dips associated with various misinformation/FUD propagated by pundits, analysts, and others).
The internet has been the biggest equalizer for individual investors in my lifetime. It does not erase the advantages of the large investors, but it narrows the gap quite a bit in terms of timely access to information as well as access to rapid, low-cost trades. That very access, however, has led to the effectiveness of the “fomenting” that is the topic of this article.
Bloomberg’s Connie Guglielmo, and her endless fascination with Steve Job’s liver.
I think MDN is right up there with the outlets it regularly castigates …
My vote goes to MDN:
While a number of media outfits were seriously concerned about Steve Jobs health in 2008, MDN was spinning Apple PR:
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/18399/
MacDailyNews Take: Steve: We know you hate wasting time on clothes; hence the uniform, but, seriously, dump the old ill-fitting jeans and black mock turtlenecks and get new jeans and black mock turtlenecks that fit your newfound svelteness. Problem solved.
The problem was not solved with a new pair of jeans.
Does this guy ever actually say anyhting coherent?
Thanks for the lesson on how things work MDN. A lot of people don’t understand this economy is based on greed and ignorance by both the public, the media and big companies. It’s easier for some citizens to say because they were given a house or credit card, they were lured in, without accept that they themselves were out to profit also. Ignoring the fact that these companies were lending to people to profit even more, was very foolish. Too much finger pointing going one. I always felt stocks were being manipulated, yet suckers who couldn’t afford it would dump their money in, and get eaten alive. Media controls the brainwashing, usually, a better question might be, which media outlets are still ethical and informative, so we can finally move forward.
The Street are all guilty and should all be locked up with madoff and his roommate Buhbuh.