The Mother Of All Irony: Playboy Magazine Targets The Daily Bail. We Stand Accused Of Having Fake Boobs
PLAYBOY HAS PULLED THE ARTICLE FROM THEIR WEBSITE AND ISSUED A PRIVATE APOLOGY TO THE DAILY BAIL.
The link below no longer works but I found a link with the original Playboy article cached in its entirety. It seems they not only didn't do their research on us, but they failed even to establish the basic thesis of their article. We assume that Santelli and FreedomWorks and perhaps others have filed a lawsuit for slander. One day you're a hero and the next day a liar. Marc Ames and Yasha Levine, get used to it.
Below is my original article.
I step away from the site for 24 hours and all hell breaks loose. Consider for a moment the succulent irony of Playboy magazine accusing someone else of being fake. Thanks for that collective moment as you become me for a second. I found out tonight that Playboy wrote about us yesterday. And we didn't get a happy ending. (last sex pun.)
It's the lead story on the Playboy Blog. It's a conspiracy-soaked read about Rick Santelli and the organizations loosely aligned behind the Chicago Tea Party. Writers Mark Ames and Yasha Levine did some mundane research and pieced together a decent story. There's only one problem, everything they wrote about us is completely incorrect. The writers tossed us under the bus as they headed to conclusion, simply because of our support for Santelli and the various tea party protests.
Laughably, the authors believe that we're part of a shadowy, right-wing conspiracy creating fake websites to influence public opinion. It specifically accuses us of being an 'astroturf' website, part of an imitation grassroots campaign to advance the corporate interests of the Koch family and others. The accusation might actually bother me if it weren't so comical. Had the writers bothered to contact me before going to press, they would have learned a few things about me politically and personally that would have kept The Daily Bail out of the mud.
I have responded to the authors privately:
Mark and Yasha,
What do they say about controversy when you're fighting for a cause, that any publicity is good publicity. Your article will test that theory for us, because you skewered us and you couldn't have been more wrong. Couldn't you at least have tried to contact me before lumping us into a right-wing conspiracy? You did absolutely no research on us beyond reading our Santelli articles. Nice job.
You made a mistake by lumping The Daily Bail in with these groups. We are an independent news site and categorically non-political. Though my opinions might sometimes coincide with one side or the other, I am not a member or fan of either political party. Bailout politics make for strange bed-fellows and the goal is to stop the giveaway not to solve our differences. Liberals, conservatives, libertarians and political drop-outs are all welcomed here. We are equal-opportunity revolutionaries.
As I said, I do not listen to talk radio or participate on any political websites. As a trader and private-client money manager, I'm completely focused on the markets and financial news. I really am just one person trying to make a difference. It might sound corny but it's the truth. My background in journalism was in radio and then at CNN Moneyline before becoming a sell-side equities analyst for a top-tier investment bank. Yes, I've been on the inside and know first-hand the sleaze that goes on at these joints.
My personal politics are simple and very non-radical: I'm a fiscal conservative and social liberal. I believe in a smaller federal government, fiscal sanity, and I support tolerance for all people and lifestyles. I am disgusted by both political parties and belong to neither.
I believe the bailouts are nothing short of generational rape. Particularly the bank bailouts, plus Fannie, Freddie and AIG. I believe Henry Paulson is a criminal. Both for his role in creating this crisis in 2004 with the SEC rule change that allowed leverage to expand, as well as his decision to bailout AIG so that Goldman Sachs (his former firm from whom he received a $600 million tax-free severance in 2006) would be protected.
Read the following story for more on Paulson's role in this crisis: Rule Bending Banking Bastards
Considering my views, I doubt the John Birchers or any other right-wing factions would claim me as you suggest. And I'd sooner lose my middle nut than be associated with either side. We are a completely independent news site focusing on stopping the goddamned bailouts, with absolutely no political affiliation. And we have received no funding from any source besides my wallet.
Please examine things from my perspective. I have one goal which is to help galvanize public opinion against the taxpayer bailouts of private failure. Period.
Feb 28, 2009 at 7:15 PM
Reader Comments (69)
PLAYBOY HAS PULLED THE ARTICLE FROM THEIR WEBSITE AND ISSUED A PRIVATE APOLOGY TO THE DAILY BAIL.
It seems they not only didn't do their research on us, but they failed even to establish the basic thesis of their article. We assume that Santelli and FreedomWorks and perhaps others have filed a lawsuit for slander. Uh-oh.
One day you're a hero and the next day a liar. Marc Ames and Yasha Levine, I hope you get fired and end up being forced to snort worms for the rest of your days. Thanks for ruining my weekend, you bastards."
The playboy writers slandered your site.
Seriously, I wouldn't worry about it. They will probably remove all mention of your site from their article by morning. If I were you, I would hope it turns into a huge controversy. You will get a lot of free publicity if it does.
I have never posted here before but I have been reading your blog for a few weeks and enjoy it very much. Please don't be discouraged or stop what you are doing. I read the article from Playboy and followed their links and it's pretty obvious they just threw you in because they don't like Rick Santelli.
They are fake. Are you disappointed?
They are fake. Are you disappointed? "
Not as long as Carmen doesn't care about my surgically enhanced shlong.
Watch this Wanda Sykes video clip from the Jay Leno Show. Not sure how I missed this one before.
http://dailybail.com/home/2009/2/8/must-see-bailout-comedy-wanda-sykes-is-hilarious-explaining.html
http://dailybail.com/home/2009/2/8/must-listen-bailout-song-the-bailout-blues-live.html
What a bunch of cooked-up phoney-baloney bullshit. Just because your webiste launched recently and you live 300 miles from Chicago is obviously plenty of evidence to accuse you. Their article was pretty decent until they strayed down the conspiracy path.
It's pretty interesting that they never contacted you before printing this. In the blogoshpere, attacks happen without warning.
Consider it as more evidence that your blog is being noticed by a lot of people. I did a search and found this article from CNN from this week that gives you special mention. Word is getting around. Congrats.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/02/24/recession.web.sites/
I updated my post with a link back to you . . .
It is much appreciated. Since your story on the Santelli Playboy piece was so popular, I wanted you to hear it from me personally that these allegations are categorically untrue. i greatly respect what you do at the Big Picture and you are forever a hero for calling out Gasparino on CNBC.
That shit was classic stuff. In fact I think I'll post that video of you and gasparino later today in homage.
Thanks again for standing up for me. It means a lot.
There are quite a few of us who no longer look to either political party as the solution, but blame them both for the problems. Which is what makes sites like these increasingly popular. I don't want to unseat Democrats, I want to upend the political class and all the nonsense it has stood for over the last 50 years.
Keep up the good work.
I love your writing style and I'll be sure to check in regularly, even if you are part of some bizarre conspiracy network.
GOOD STUFF!!!
One change is that from here on in, people will be looking at you through that prism, so you'll have to redouble your efforts to stay precise and on-point, or you'll get hammered.
So even if this figment of their overactive tin-hatted left-wing imagination really existed -- so what? The Goldman Sachs/Obama administration needs to be stopped. And do you really think the grass roots Internet frenzy that laundered $700 million to the Obama presidential campaign was real?
I shared my political beliefs because I have been accused of being a fake website run by right-wing scions.
You know what Bob, if you read several of my meatier stories and you still think I'm a shill, then bless you my friend, you may have your belief in peace.
I agree with what you say and said something similar myself over at Barry's site.
Here's the part that doesn't register with me from the Playboy article. I followed the links the Playboy authors provided to the actual conservative websites, and I saw no evidence they were trying to hide their political beliefs at all.
In a nut-shell here's what happened. They saw my obvious excitement for a mid-summer tea party. They saw all the Santelli videos. They saw how I mentioned the chicago tea party several times. And they thought the site looked professional, which it plainly is not.
Then add the fact that I said we would be willing to help organize the event plus my statement about being close to Chicago and the authors thought they had a ringer. They were so sure they never even contacted me.
It was a mistake and they will be shown in time to have gotten it wrong.
I want as many allies on our side as possible. The goal is to stop the bailouts, not solve political differences among us. If we find ourselves aligned on the same team, then let's fight together. Left, right, center, political drop-outs, young, old, everybody aginst the common enemy of burdening future generations with this immoral debt.
And to demonstrate how we can all play on the same team nicely, here are a group of videos from last week's B-52 Bernanke hearings.
There are 2 Ron Paul videos inside for those who are interested in hearing his smiling attack on the Fed, straight to B-52's face.
http://dailybail.com/home/2009/2/26/the-bernanke-bailout-4-videos-from-federal-reserve-chairman.html
Indeed it does. I'm a liberal that enjoys you're site and I'm against the bank bailouts. I believe a LOT of crimes have been committed and the fraud has gone largely unpunished. I know nothing about this Chicago tea party deal but the call for justice is the beginning of a truly bipartisan movement that IS going to be heard. Santelli's rant appeared to me to be about blaming only the buyers (and considering the dumbing down of America, I doubt that very few of them actually understood all the paperwork).
So some may find it odd that a liberal like me would agree with most of what was said in this speech at the CPAC conference.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ipVV3BRTWA
Bottom line: Santelli would be well-advised to find a new line of work; I'd wager he'd have a far more lucrative career as a radio talker.
And there's nothing actionable in what the Playboy writers said about TDB -- in fact, you should be thanking them for the free publicity! Were you to follow the ill-informed Summer of '62's advice and file a civil action, it would likely not only fail but prove costly in other ways to your scathing and well-written blog, as Playboy is not only notoriously litigious but has a strong record of filing and winning cross-claims.
You bring up a good point that is actually the start of the perception that we are a republican site. i wrote a piece with a funny title and a funny picture about the mortgage bailout plan that got a lot of hits from referring sites. Liberals attacked me when they saw it because they were new to the site and weren't aware that it was a soft post for me. I reserve much stronger language for the investment banks, fannie, freddie and AIG.
If these critics only would have taken a few minutes to review a sampling of my other posts they would have seen that I'm highly critical of ALL bailout recipients. I blame everyone partially but one man more than any other- Henry Paulson. He played the pivotal role in getting the leverage exemption jammed through the SEC in 2004.
That was the day this crisis went from ordinary to once a century. Leverage went from 12:1 to above 30:1 very quickly.
You don't want to file suit against them because of discovery. In discovery, they would have the full right to seek all of your financial and funding records - the very topics of their story. As such, you'd have to turn those records over to Playboy's writers or be in contempt of court.
The Kochs will never allow that to happen.
Understand, also, that Playboy is like The National Enquirer. Both pay for the information. They fork over a lot of cash and get people to sign legal affidavits verifying the authenticity of their statements. It's all perfectly legal; it also protects both publications against lawsuits on the grounds of slander or bias. The compensation binds the recipient to testimony on behalf of the publication. No running. No hiding. No games. No confidential sources. No distancing after the fact and the topic, in this case the powerful Koch klan, learns who's made the statements.
So prattle on; that's why the Kochs fund your operation and I'd be most disappointed if you did anything less.
But Playboy beat you. And you know it.
Send along my best to Dick Armey, the lady's man of all lady's men as his recent appearance with Matthews indicated.
I have no intention of anything legal. As I wrote in the piece I'm not really even that upset with the authors. I think they are trying to get to the truth about things as we all are. The majority of their reporting was good in this story. That doesn't mean that Odom and others have done anything wrong, as I explained in more detail in an earlier comment.
For whatever reason, the authors decided to throw us under a moving bus at the end. I also explained this in an earlier comment. The circumstantial evidence seemed so strong that they didn't even bother to contact me. For this I fault them. But I get over things quickly and am ready to move on to more productive pursuits of time.
Here's the link I forgot to provide in the previosu post that first got the left upset with me.
http://dailybail.com/home/2009/2/19/insane-america-obama-wants-you-to-bailout-the-asshats-who-li.html
Please consider the idea that you are wrong. Imagine, your surprise with time as you find out we really are non-political here. That we are all types lined up together with the goal of fighting the bailouts.
You mention my funding and discovery. Please look around. What here do you think costs any money?
My total costs for this site to date are less than the price of a steak dinner for two. No shit. It's that easy.
Now my time and and loss of sanity are harder to value, So i think I'll just stick them in my level III category and mark them to fantasy.
Protesters hold anti-stimulus “tea party” at the Capitol
By Mary Lou Pickel | Friday, February 27, 2009, 03:43 PM
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Protesters at the Capitol handed out One Trillion dollar bills with the faces of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada).
State Republican politicians lined up to speak in the rain, including gubernatorial hopefuls Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine and Rep. Austin Scott (R-Tifton).
State Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock) also spoke, urging the crowd to find socialists in office and “kick them out.”
“Let’s go after them,” Rogers said, to cheers from the crowd.
Obama's choices are:
1) Let the financial system crash and create the next great depression.
2) Slog along and try to work out of the mess GW Bush and the republicans create. Could take 10 years.
The Santelli Rant had NOTHING to do with bailing out the banks but was about the mortgage relief act that favors Americans over the banks.
Rick Santelli is a mouthpiece for wall street banks and a complete anti-American scumbad.
Regarding the so called "losers" being "bailed out" of thier mortgages:
GW Bush nationalized Fannie Mae and Fredie Mac, at that point the American Taxpayers OWNED THESE MORTGAGES.
That is correct, there is no PRIVATE BANK involved in these mortgages, they are owned collectivily by the taxpayers.
So the choice is Forclosure in which case the American taxpayers lose or encourage these people to paid back as much of thier mortgages as possible to the American taxpayers through incentives such as lower interest rates.
The American taxpayer lost the day GW Bush dumped these toxic mortgages onto the taxpayers, bailing out the banks.
Obama has no options of giving these back to the banks. He can only try a limited the loses to the taxpayers created by the Bush scumbags.
Rick Santelii is an anti-American scumbag extrodinaire.
However, I will never view you as anything more than the paid child that you are.
Expecting your invective-laden response in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 ....
P.S. As a financial wiz, you, more than any other, should know that the questions raised here and elsewhere deal not with operating expenses, but with seed capital and the source(s) of said seed capital. The meat of the story, in homage to your T-bone, is not where you dined in the Internet world, but who paid and is continuing to pay the tab.
I love your blogspot. I have it on an RSS feed so I can see new updates.
John and Ken are having a Tea Party next weekend March 7th in Fullerton, CA, in Orange County. Look on Facebook for the details. We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore. The continued funding of social services for illegal aliens, bloated state budgets for lazy ass state workers and people leaving CA leaves only the parasites behind. Well if the hard-working Californians leave who is going to pay for the tab? Oh and DB to add insult to injury they want to raise personal taxes, the car tax (to renew your plates) and DMV charges so the federal stimulus will have little or no effect.
This anti-bailout sentiment is not limited to any particular party. I'm a libertarian and I voted for Obama, but this bailout makes no financial sense. I can unequivocably tell you that in Southern California plenty of people took out loans for homes they knew damn well they couldn't afford. The blames lies within the greedy realtor who was rubbing his/her hands to get a commission for an overpriced So Cal home and the lender who was making money off of it. I'm a responsible renter who makes a decent income but knew buying a house here was a complete waste of time. I'm now glad I didn't. With the prices of homes falling every single day, I'd be upside down!
I like Rick Santelli and I like his populist viewpoints. He speaks for many of us. I cheer when I see him on TV. It's about damn time someone said the REAL truth about we Americans feel.
Bailout is Bullshit.
looming financial abyss
punish but support
First, if they printed that about you without any apparent effort to check you out, what on earth makes you think they did anything more on any of the other people or links? Far from being good investigators, it seems they've behaved as writers serving a political agenda. I'd be very suspicious of whatever they write.
Second...let's pray (atheists can hope) this blows up into a controversy. It would help promote the site and the effort to stop the insanity of our federal giveaways.
Secondly,
There is no seed capital. There are no expenses short of time and frustration. We are not a Kochlian site.
Have you stopped to consider that foreslosure is NOT the problem but rather the solution. Housing prices are still out of line with historical standards. Prices need to fall further to re-adjust with incomes. When a homeowner is kept in a house that he can't afford, the process of price adjustment is impeded.
Most of us want the problems to be over quickly. The meausres designed to slow it down will only make things worse.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/121930-you-want-to-save-the-housing-market-don-t-fight-foreclosures?source=patrick.net
http://mortgage.freedomblogging.com/2009/02/21/mortgage-forensics-expert-bailout-wont-help/6885/?ref=patrick.net
http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2009/02/20/let-housing-find-its-clearing-price/?ref=patrick.net
Patrick.net a fellow blogger has provided these links on housing and why we must let prices fall further in order to reach equilibrium.
Comment duly noted. Absence of foul language appreciated. Will take you at your blog on this.
Be sure this is not one of those moments akin to "I did not have sex (or take money) with that woman (or from those Texas billionaires)."
Honesty may not get you an offshore bank account, but it will yield something worthwhile.
Respect.
http://www.businessinsider.com/plantelli-was-santellis-rant-staged-2009-3
key snip from the article (it's all clusterstock below. not my commentary):
"We're a little more skeptical. First of all, the article is kind of obnoxious, using phrases like "craziest and sleaziest rightwing oligarch clans" to describe folks who fund middle-of-the-road groups like Reason and Cato. It kind of looks like they're compensating for, um, a lack of a smoking gun.
Second, there seems to be some idea that this rant was way out of Santelli's character. Have they seen this guy? He's been railing against everything for months. What would've been weird is if he hadn't lost his wig. Beyond that, it's obvious that Santelli hadn't just made up the Chicago Tea Party thing right on the spot there. He said something to the effect of, we're having a "Tea Party" here this summer. In other words, he admitted that he knew some folks (dweeby though they may be) had been planning this event. So he admits to having been aware of this, in the rant, and Playboy's charge is that there's some conspiracy here.
Anyway, consider us unimpressed by this. The whole thing is getting tired, but obviously it's okay to rant against bailouts and such until you start ranting against one that goes to help homeowners, in which case it's part of some paranoid rightwing plat to screw people. Yeah, that's it."
I got some sleep which gave me back some calm. You are obviously a thinker. I appreciate your comments. It really, really, really is just me with no support from anyone or anything. I started the blog on my own out of frustration with the bank bailouts. Not the auto bailouts, not a potential future mortgage bailout, not the stimulus.
I'm in the financial markets everyday so I was acutely aware of the size of the toxic balance sheet problem. I think we have at least $4 trillion MORE to spend on the banks and i wanted to have the site running in order to fight it effectively.
All the other ancillary bailouts are much less important both in size and scope. My original excitement about the tea party had nothing to do with the mortgage bailout. For me personally, the santelli tea party represented a symbolic protest against all the bailouts and the accumulated debt.
Hopefully, this explains more clearly why I was so supportive. Also, I have been a fan of Santelli's actual reporting for years. Santelli gives more information, more succinctly and quickly than other TV analysts. Some think he's confusing, because of the sheer volume of info he offers. Me, I love his reports and that he can stick 15 pieces of knowledge into a 90 second spot.
If you hang out here, you will see I'm not usually a hothead and that the debate is rational and helpful.
People hear what they need to hear I suppose, and I fell into that trap. But it has become obvious to me that for many people Santelli is political before anything else. And to me he is a financial reporter before anything else.
I think part of my dis-connect in this area is due to the fact that I don't watch political shows, of any sort. I gave up on following politics closely 15 years ago in my mid 20s when I realized both sides were similar failures. So I was not aware that Santelli is identified through Kudlow as an active conservative.
Simply put, I didn't know he was such a lightning rod for some of you and so I should have presented him with more care.
Lesson learned.
I admire your intensity. I suggest, if you already haven't, that you read Roger Lowenstein's, "When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management," or, "Origins of the Crash: The Great Bubble and Its Undoing." An avowed capitalist with a long career at the Journal (pre-Rupe) and an ability to present the entire picture in an understandable, logical manner, Lowenstein's books of five and 10 years ago will tell you everything, and offer you every reason, for why we are where we are today.
As for Santelli, he's just working for the man and trying to land a new contract. Expect (a) CNBC to realize that they've been taken on this Astroturf scam, which won't bother CNBC but will infuriate GE and lead to his ouster, (b) Murdoch-Ailes to pick him up for a gig with Cavuto on their struggling FOX Biz Network, and (c) Bernie Goldberg to come out with some sort of screed claiming that Bobby Gibbs, by referring to Rick by name during the press conference of recent days, was actually telling the anti-Conservative, socialist/communist/Marxist/fascist space aliens controlled by Obama, the liberals, the mainstream media, and George Soros to kill Santelli, his family, and the West Bank settlements in Gaza.