The American Spectator

Reader Mail

(Page 2 of 9)

br> Re: Michael Craig Martha Stewart's Guilt Trip : /p> p>Michael Craig makes good points in his article (even if he does resort to the cretinous, suck-up non-word "spokesperson"). But as to "guilt," I have to put myself in Miss Stewart's place: if I owned a lot of stock in a company, and somebody told me it was going to tank very soon, what would I do? I'd no doubt sell the stock. What would you do -- pretend you never heard it? Pul-lease. br> -- Larry Eubank br> Lgeub@cs.com /p>

Michael Craig replies: Some people might be shocked that The American Prowler has become the house organ for Martha Stewart, but I agree with you. Most people would find it difficult to ignore credible, concrete information telling you that your investment was about to plummet.

But I'll go you one further. Sam Waksal, who is obviously guilty, probably deserves a bit of our respect. Here he is, the CEO, the guy who got his kids and his friends to buy the stock -- they've sunk hundreds of thousands into it -- and the FDA has told him they're going to reject the application for its main product, practically its whole reason for being. He feels terrible that those people who followed his advice are going to suffer, so he tries to save them. He's still got to go to jail, but at least he had a good reason. Like Eddie Cicotte said when indicted in connection with purposely losing the 1919 World Series, "I did it for the wife and kiddies."

The real culprit here is the FDA. Virtually alone among federal agencies, the FDA has failed to gather that its action on a drug application could be material to the stock market. The FDA told Waksal and let him sit on the information before it released it to the public.

I can't defend my use of "spokesperson," though I figured if I trashed "those damned regulators," I could at least sneak on to the right side of the political spectrum. (I also recall that on Ed McMahon's TV show, "Star Search," they had a category of talent called "Spokesmodel." I suppose I took for granted that you could put any word at the end of "spokes-" and get away with it.)

Thanks for reading.

The Skeptical Spokesinvestor

topics:
Hillary Clinton, Law, Military, Iraq, Iran, Russia, Israel, North Korea, Oil, Unions