NBC vs. Goldman Sachs

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Last year, banks were “too big to fail” and were arm twisted into taking a federal bailout.  Now that many of them have repaid the TARP money, the media deems their profits to be a betrayal of the taxpayers.

NBC “Today” host Meredith Vieira began the segment on Goldman Sachs by pitting the average American against the big companies, “While you may be struggling financially these days, happy days appear to be here again for some companies on wall street, and now they are getting set to pay out some big bonuses.”

Correspondent Melissa Francis also continued this storyline in her report. “With the nation’s unemployment rate moving closer to ten percent, a housing market still plagued by foreclosures and households struggling to make ends meet, it might be hard for most Americans to believe that it’s back to business as usual on Wall Street,” she said.

However, Francis did balance the report with an interview with Jeffrey Sonnenfeld of the Yale School of Management. “Many of these top execs aren’t the bad guys that caused the problems through recklessness,” he explained, “These banks are retaining the talent that we need and that they are competitive on a global basis.”

Matt Lauer wasn’t paying attention though. In his interview with Dylan Ratigan of MSNBC, he expressed the supposed shock and anger of taxpayers: “I think a lot of people are going to be saying wait a second, Goldman Sachs needed 10 billion dollars in federal bailout money a short time ago, and now they are set to record record prices. How did this happen so quickly?”

Lauer didn’t mention that Goldman Sachs has done exactly what it was supposed to. The whole purpose of the bailouts was to allow institutions to make profits once again. Now that the bailed out banks have done so, the mainstream media abuses them for succeeding.

Instead Lauer was incredulous that repaying the TARP money freed institutions from government interference. He asked Ratigan, “Do they have the right to pay their employees anything they want to pay them?” Apparently Lauer has gotten used to the idea of government running companies. Ratigan explained that, the way the system was set up, the government does not have a say in now in how they pay the employees.

In pushing his faux populist outrage, Lauer ignored the larger story: profits are not only good for the top executives receiving bonuses, but also good for the overall US economy, and therefore good for the average taxpayer.

ABC, which had displayed Lauer’s brand of knee-jerk socialism in reporting the story the previous night, had recovered in time for “Good Morning America.” “GMA interviewed   Fox Business Network’s Alexis Glick, who explained how the taxpayer and the company need each other: “At the end of the day, though, if they can turn the page, which they are starting to do, it means higher taxes. And for right now, when you look at what's happening to states, to municipalities, to the federal government, that is what we need. So I know it's one of those oxymorons. You kind of feel like you should be really angry about the outrage here. But on the other hand, we need the money. We need them to turn, because we're inextricably linked.” 

While ABC got this part of the story correct, it falsely reported that Goldman Sachs wanted and begged for the government bailout. “They came forward, Goldman Sachs and other banks and said, if you don't help us, it's all going down, Alexis,” said Chris Cuomo. “So we said fine, let’s help them.” In fact, many of the banks tried to refuse the bailout money, but were essentially forced to take it.

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'With the nation’s unemployment rate moving closer to 10%'...

Forced to argue the non-arguable 

JDW

DAILY WAVE

When people fear their government there is tyranny.

When government fears the people there is liberty.

Heck JDW... You summed

Heck JDW...

You summed it up...nail on head.

Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart

'profits to be a betrayal of the taxpayers'

Now, six months into the Obama administration, she must focus on all of the disasters in order to secure her opinion? 

JDW

DAILY WAVE

When people fear their government there is tyranny.

When government fears the people there is liberty.

OF COURSE NBC HATES GS - THEY COMPETE WITH GE CAPITAL!

I'm of the belief that every NBC story and every reporter should be stamped "Owned & Operated by GE".

If there is a corporation today that personifies the statist-corporate giants of WWII Germany, it's GE.

Not since the von Thyssen and Krupp companies crawled into bed with the Nazi's, have we witnessed the marriage of business and politics the likes of which we are witnessing with Jeff Imelt's GE.

→ Guns of Krupp

Not too long ago, the alarmist left was dizzying itself with Halliburton and the Bush Admin.

GE seems to be the one company whose original agenda was to marry itself to the Federal Government.

Yes GE is calling the

Yes GE is calling the kettle black. It is funny if you actually watch their news and realize GE's goals. Their news organizations are very pro-GE. MSNBC/NBC twist facts to further GE's agenda.

"DumbAssity of Dope"

Does Matt ever listen to himself.

“Do they have the right to pay their employees anything they want to pay them?”

Yes Matt, they do. How would you like it if the government told NBC they had to cap your salary at $100,000 a year?

Dave

I'd say cap it at what he is worth. About $30,000. He has no marketable skills in any area but running his mouth.  

You my friend would be paying him what he THINKS he is worth.

Semper suprene nitens

North Carolina now has the worst government money can buy. 

What profitith it to a man ...?

Matt missed the footnotes on his Obama talking points. Criticizing and/or capping executive pay and slicing bonuses should be invoked only to make political points.

Remember Chris Dodd's insertion of an Amendment to the Stimulus Bill to allow compensation bonuses for AIG executives?

Remember all the Obama appointments, staffers and employees who received their bonuses without criticism or mention in the msm? And all those executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?

C'mon! You know we're not supposed to take all this rhetoric literally! ;-)

metaphorsbwithu

Green Goldman Sachs

Isn't Goldman Sach supposed to trade all these "Cap and Trade" securities. You think that would make them a "good company" with the GE - Immelt crowd.

Why make AIG the bad guy? 

Why make AIG the bad guy?  They could do some investigating and reporting on why members of this administration and Congress are owned by and ordered around by AIG.   Why not actually come up with a complete story about everyone involved instead of jumping directly into the whiney class warfare crap?   There might even be a story here but you'd never be able to tell from NBC's superficial, drive by schtick.

I don't suppose it was mentioned....

....that GS employees gave almost $1,000,000 to BHO during the 2008 election campaign or that 75% of the $3 million plus of their total campaign contributions went to Democrats.

http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/toprecips.php?id=D000000085

 

"The Truth is Treason in the Empire of Lies"

www.campaignforliberty.com

 

About Goldman Sachs

If you want to know about Goldman Sachs, read The Great American Bubble Machine. It's very long but has interesting ties to Gore, Obama, AIG, and others, including all the investors screwed, us. Enjoy.

The best thing about GS, Bill Oreilly pointed out a few hours ago, is they don't pay any Federal income tax.

 

He has already failed... his country.