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A Wikipedia Conspiracy and the Wall Street Meltdown

PatrickByrne writes "This is The Register's world-class investigative piece concerning one aspect of the meltdown on Wall Street ('naked short selling') and how the criminals engaged a journalist to distort Wikipedia to confuse the discourse. The article explicitly and formally accuses a well-known US financial journalist, Gary Weiss, of lying about his efforts to distort a Wikipedia page under assumed names, and accuses the Powers That Be in Wikipedia (right up to and including Jimbo Wales) of complicity in protecting Weiss. This is not another story about a 15-year-old farm kid in Iowa pretending to be a professor. This is like the worst Chomskian view of Elites manipulating mass opinion. But it is all documented." We discussed the alleged Wikipedia manipulation when The Register first wrote about it last December. The submitter is the CEO of Overstock.com and a major player in this drama from the beginning.

12 of 485 comments (clear)

  1. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 5, Funny

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  2. im just glad slashdot is never manipulated by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    the moderators that run the comment section would never be swayed by any sort of groupthink or unfair opin

    *bitchslap*

  3. Re:naked shorts by syousef · · Score: 4, Funny

    Naked shorting is dirty, crappy stuff and those that engage in the practice should rightfully be put in jail.

    Fuck you! If I want to sit around in my underwear in my own home I should be allowed to do so without fear of being put in jail!

    --
    These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
  4. Re:naked shorts by ScrewMaster · · Score: 4, Funny

    Naked shorting is dirty, crappy stuff and those that engage in the practice should rightfully be put in jail.

    Fuck you! If I want to sit around in my underwear in my own home I should be allowed to do so without fear of being put in jail!

    Given that you're posting on Slashdot, odds are you've got plenty of company.

    --
    The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
  5. Re:naked shorts by religious+freak · · Score: 2, Funny

    haha! I am literally "naked shorting" right now myself - so I guess I agree with you.

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    If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011
  6. it also ignores the artificial *inflation* by Trepidity · · Score: 3, Funny

    Naked shorting, as essentially leveraged speculation on downward price movements, does serve as a useful counter to the massive, and often highly leveraged (i.e. bank-created money) speculation on upward price movements that created the bubble that got us into this mess in the first place.

    The Economist provides a nice tongue-in-cheek fake newspaper article from the future, in which regulators ban naked longs to avoid that sort of speculative market manipulation.

  7. Re:naked shorts by A+nonymous+Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    As if naked shorters hold on to "their" stocks long enough to issue dividends.

  8. Re:naked shorts by DavidTC · · Score: 4, Funny

    As if companies still issued dividends anyway.

    --
    If corporations are people, aren't stockholders guilty of slavery?
  9. Re:naked shorts by KGIII · · Score: 3, Funny

    I disagree. This is /. after all. If there is one thing I don't want to see it is pictures of this particular activity.

    Come to think of it, I don't even want to imagine it.

    Unfortunately I have a vivid imagination. Damn you /.!!!

    --
    "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  10. Re:naked shorts by soshimo · · Score: 2, Funny

    Wow, this sounds suspiciously like a pyramid scheme. You oversell at the top so the ones at the bottom receive devalued returns. When did Amway take over the financial market?

  11. Me thinks, we accuse .... by OldHawk777 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Me thinks,

    We accuse the worker/drone bees of many harmful blinding stings, but fail to suspect the C*O "Market Queens" and many "Politically Correct" (PC for PTB) things done globally.

    The injuries (suffering, deaths, wars) are unintentional gapping economic wounds caused by dumb negligent sharks in a greedy feeding frenzy.

    This is common when the shark masters (Unaccountable Leaders) gleefully anticipate the gladiatorial sacrifice of troublesome Slaves (Unrepresented Public) and are rewarded with $700B to fail USAgain.

    Godddd bless them one and all.

    --
    Unaccountable leaders are masters, and unrepresented people are slaves. How do US and EU fare?
  12. Re:naked shorts by Kirth+Gersen · · Score: 2, Funny

    "Mom, I found this guy who will pay an outrageous price for a 2003 Saab 9-5 in good condition, like the one in the driveway that you're not using since you got your BMW. I can get another one just like it at a lower price, but I can't get it until next Wednesday. If I give you a hundred bucks, can I sell yours to this guy and replace it next Wednesday?"

    Your analogy makes me think you never had kids. Any prudent mom whose son tried to give her that spiel would respond "You're grounded". We should have said the same thing to Long Term Capital Management -- and many others.