Imagine if a leading light of the right side of the blogosphere had the SEC come down on him like it just did on Jerome "Pump and Dump" Armstrong of MyDD and "Crashing the Gates" co-authorship fame (excerpt is from SEC announcement; HT Drudge, whose story refers to a New York Times blog story that is now behind the TimeSelect firewall):
August 7, 2007
On July 26, 2007, the Honorable John D. Holschuh, U. S. District Judge for the Southern District of Ohio, entered a Final Judgment as to defendant Jerome B. Armstrong ("Armstrong").
..... The Commission's Complaint, filed on April 14, 2003, alleged that beginning on March 6, 2000, Armstrong touted the stock of BluePoint Linux Software Corporation ("BluePoint") by posting unsubstantiated, favorable buy recommendations on the Raging Bull internet site. Armstrong posted over eighty such recommendations during the first three weeks that the stock of BluePoint was publicly traded. According to the Complaint, Armstrong praised BluePoint's investment value and encouraged investors who were experiencing trouble having their orders filled to keep trying. The Complaint further alleged that the promoters of BluePoint were secretly transferring stock in three other companies to Armstrong at prices below the then current market for those three stocks and that Armstrong made at least $20,000 by selling the shares he received from the promoters of BluePoint. The Complaint alleges that Armstrong did not disclose in his internet postings that he was being compensated for making the postings.
I'll bet there would be more coverage than this (UPDATE, 1 PM -- The same Google News search now shows a story at Watching The Watchers.org and still no Old Media coverage):
Drudge appears to have used a whitewash word from the Times blog in his headline: "Daily Kos Co-Author Fined $30K for Unethical Stock Tout." What Armstrong allegedly did is illegal insider trading, and is not merely unethical.
Pajamas Media notes some other pointed thoughts at other right-of-center blogs:
- RedState is waiting for the PR offensive promised when the story first broke a year ago (maybe a Kos diarist calling Drudge a "famous self-hating closeted homosexual and right wing propagandist" is Kos-Armstrong's idea of a defense).
- Blue Crab Boulevard reminds us that Kos demanded that other leftist bloggers not mention Armstrong's issues a year ago -- "They obediently complied. Funny how the left likes to charge that the right are doing that sort of thing but ignore confessions of that on their side of the aisle."
- Roger Simon and Mickey Kaus thinks Armstrong owes the public, and his readers, an answer. Here's Kaus -- "But if Armstrong doesn't owe the SEC an admit-or-deny answer, doesn't he owe it to everyone else--his allies, his readers, his colleagues? Is it true, Jerome?"
Not noted at PJM -- My Pet Jawa's Good Lt. describes the Armstrong result as "When the SEC Crashes the Gates."
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
