A few bloggers were talking this weekend about anti-semitism on the Yahoo message boards, specifically the board for Overstock.com. That discussion board is overrun with derogatory references to Jewish people. Just how pervasive is this problem? Prominent New York attorney Howard Sirota writes:

No More Anti-Semitism on this Board!

I just did a search for “Jew” on this Message Board.

There are 428 posts containing the word “Jew.”

That means that this board is infested with anti-semites, which is intolerable.

Meanwhile, Judd Bagley’s website www.antisocialmedia.net posts anti-semitic slurs by someone named Edward Manfredonia.

I have no position in OSTK but I also have ZERO TOLERANCE for anti-semites.

I understand that I can’t stop people from hating Jews, just as I can’t exterminate cockroaches from the planet. What I can and will do is step on as many as I can in this Life.

This is supposed to be a forum to discuss Overstock.com

I strongly suggest you stick to Overstock.com and make no further anti-semitic remarks. It’s easy to trace your IP address to a physical location, see it on Google, and get directions from Mapquest, and turn it all over to the feds and the B’Nai Brith Anti-Defamation League.

Shabat Shalom

Howard Sirota

What really is the purpose of making anti-semitic remarks on a message board designed to discuss the stock of a public company? My guess is intimidation.

Howard refers to Judd Bagley and his Anti-Social Media website. Judd is an “executive” at Overstock.com, and he’s a little ruffled that people like Howard and Gary Weiss and Sam Antar are exposing the shenanigans going on there. Quite simply put, something is not right at Overstock, the shareholders are suffering because it, but Judd wants everyone to shut up already.

Judd’s really a nobody. He’s the mouthpiece for Patrick Byrne, the CEO of Overstock who is quite often referred to as “Wacky Patty” because of his delusional rantings and Sith Lord conspiracy theories.

So the executives at Overstock want to intimidate people to stop discussing all the unusual items on the financial statements, the discrepancies in the disclosures, the fact that the company waited nearly a year to write down inventory it knew was junk, and the fact that executives of the company pump the stock on a variety of message boards using pseudonyms not known to the average investor. (Rules? What rules?)

Sam Antar has alerted the Overstock.com audit committee of the actions of the company’s executives:

The Director of Communication for Overstock.com, Judd Bagley runs a smear web site called antisocialmedia.net. His activities have the tacit endorsement of Patrick Byrne, the CEO of Overstock.com. In the open letter to the Audit Committee, I show certain vile and malicious actions of an executive of a public corporation with the endorsement of his boss.

The Audit Committee of Overstock.com has a simple choice: wheather they choose to be associated with such vile ugliness from their inaction in fully enforcing the company’s Code of Business Conduct and Ethics or to take swift action to prevent further vile acts by Patrick Byrne, Judd Bagley, and others acting in concert with them.

Do you think Overstock.com will really care about its executives engaging in this type of behavior?

One Comment

  1. Debi 06/11/2007 at 2:03 pm - Reply

    Howard Sirota has got it right!

    When did it happen? When did we decide that an employee DIDN’T reflect the character of the company they worked for? Because they didn’t do it on company time? When did words like adultrey, hatred, liar, cheat and scum become just words? When did words like honesty, integrity, forthright and commitment to doing the right thing get lost? When did we all agree with “the joke is on them if they can’t figure out the new accounting” system?” When did it become “okay” or popular to “do it because everyone else is doing it?”

    Why don’t companies hold employees accountable for character any longer? We hold our military heros accountable for character unbecoming a soldier, sailor, et. al.! We hold our heros to it, why should white-collar employees be any different?

    Employement at will should be upheld again because we’ve been paying off the bad apples instead of firing them! That’s right, ask your head of HR about the undesirables and how they get them to go away with no muss, no fuss. The smallest to the largest companies have been doing this for years. Most people don’t know this dirty little secret. But those in managment and HR know it because they’d rather pass them on to someone else as to face the issues or fire them. And you and I pay for the pay-offs or bribes…that’s what they are really…bribes to be quite and go away. I guess bribes belongs on the “okay” list too.

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