cnbc fax machine

The History of Patrick Byrne’s Sith Lord

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If you like to read about delusional rantings and paranoid conspiracy theories, you can’t help but follow full-time message board poster Patrick Byrne. He moonlights as the CEO of failing online retailer Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK), but his real purpose in life is uncovering conspiracies.

The funny thing is that if Byrne was a little more lucid, someone might listen to him. Is there corruption on Wall Street? Of course. Is it the grand conspiracy by which financial reporters take their orders from hedge fund managers and write whatever will make the hedgies billions of dollars? I doubt it. But that’s Byrne’s theory. Continue reading

Video of Patrick Byrne discussing the Sith Lord’s fax machine at CNBC

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I couldn’t make up stuff this good if I tried. Seriously. The things that Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK) says are a journalist’s dream. (Yes, if Byrne can think of himself as a journalist, so can I!) I reported the other day on his comments about the secret fax machine at CNBC. Here’s the video of the clown actually saying it. Skip ahead to 5:00 to get to the good stuff.

And when Liz Claman says she’s never seen such a fax machine, Byrne says “I have a good source on that.” I bet you do, Wacky Patty.

Patrick Byrne’s delusions

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More delusional talk from Patrick Byrne, CEO of POS Overstock.com. From Herb Greenberg at Marketwatch:

Speaking on the Fox Business Channel today to my friend Liz Claman, [Byrne] said:

“I think that there’s been an unhealthy collusion developed between certain short sellers and certain journalists. They center around your competitor, CNBC. I happen to know for a fact that there’s a fax machine in the CNBC offices where hedge funds send instructions and journalists sit around and take instructions.”

Liz quickly responded:

“Well I worked in CNBC and I never saw that fax machine.”

Of course she didn’t, because there is no such fax machine!

Why, oh why does Herb have to leave journalism? And why don’t I get those special faxes from the Sith Lord???