NBC's 'Today' Includes Michael Moore as Expert to Attack Wall Street Bonuses

Photo of Julia A. Seymour.
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Michael Moore makes propaganda movies and many in the news media embraced his latest screed against the free markets: "Capitalism: A Love Story." To NBC, hating capitalism makes Moore a go-to expert for Wall Street bashing.

"Today" interviewed Moore, along with MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan on Oct. 15, in a hit piece on Wall Street bankers and bonuses.

Moore reacted to the bonuses with condemnation of the capitalist system saying, "And I mean, I mean, Matt, these people, they burned down our economy. They completely crashed it. And now they're getting rewarded for it. It'd be like if I burned down your house today and then tomorrow you send me a check for it thanking me. I mean, it's, it's absolutely insane that we allow this to happen. But not surprising, because that's our capitalist system. They can get away with it because it's legal."

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Both Moore and Ratigan criticized the bonuses following Trish Regan's report, which included three critics and not a single defender of Wall Street bonuses.

Regan had reported that "Goldman Sachs is estimated to pay its employees upwards of $20 billion this year. Citigroup on target for $22 billion and Bank of America's on track to pay roughly $30 billion."

"Critics say there's something inherently wrong with banks paying employees so much money when, after all, it was American taxpayers that bailed out the financial system just one year ago," Regan continued.

But no on in the segment bothered to inform viewers that Goldman Sachs had already repaid its bailout from the Troubled Asset Relief Fund (TARP). That bank paid back $10 billion plus $318 million in dividends to "fully escape" the program, according to Reuters.

The NBC guests also didn't criticize mention that the government essentially forced the banks to take TARP funds in the first place under threat of audit. According to Fox News Senior Judicial Analyst Andrew Napolitano, what the government did to the banks fit the legal definition of "extortion."

"Extortion is an attempt to control somebody else's free will by threatening to perform a lawful act. Is an audit lawful? Absolutely. Is the threat to engage in an audit in order to force them to sell stock to the federal government lawful? Of course not! It's a crime," Napolitano said. "That happened in September of '08 under the Bush administration. In March of '09 is when the Treasury said we own 2 percent, we're going to tell you how to run the place."

All three broadcast networks emphasized class envy on Oct. 14 as the Dow Jones Industrial Average broke 10,000 once again. CBS's Katie Couric complained that "not everyone is sharing in it [economic recovery] equally."

—Julia A. Seymour is an assistant editor for the Business & Media Institute.


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Why not use Moore? Heck,

Why not use Moore? Heck, Congress brought in Meryl Streep as an "expert" on the use of Alar in apple farming. 

The "Mainstream" Media: By liberals. For liberals.

"To NBC, hating capitalism

"To NBC, hating capitalism makes Moore a go-to expert for Wall Street bashing"

Man. These people are living in a dreamworld. Unfortunately, so are their dwindling viewers.

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Moore the Bible Scholar

Well, Moore is ostensibly a Bible scholar, so why not a financial expert!

 

Moore the "exprert"

Moore is a multi-millionaire..., who else to better criticize million dollar bonuses   <sarc off>

Any WS exec who can turn a

Any WS exec who can turn a profit in this crappy, Obamanation of an economy, deserves a huge bonus.

And I'm just as much of an expert on this stuff as ComicBook Guy is...

Full disclosure

I want to know which stocks that pile of filth owns, in what quantities, and the dividends he's been paid PLUS a full accounting of the amount of money he's made on all of his bogus "journalism". Someone that doesn't believe in Capitalism shouldn't be allowed to profit by it, so he should give all his money to the government - just like he wants everyone else that works for their money to do.

OBAMA = One Big Ass Mistake, America!

What's ludicrous is the

What's ludicrous is the amount of money these people get paid to sit in front of a camera and TALK, when there are real people working their butts off trying to make ends meet in this country.

Moore, how DARE you sit on your fat, over-fed ass and talk about how evil other people are when you obviously eat enough on a daily basis to feed a third-world country?!  It is shameful that you have more money than, say, my paperboy, who gets out of bed at 4:00 every morning to get the news out to his customers.  What do you do at 4:00 every morning, besides roll your enormous girth over and try not to asphyxiate on your own blubber? You don't deserve a dime, never mind the millions you've banked.

Hypocrite.  Or maybe -potamus.  Or both.  Hard to tell.

"Beauty is only skin deep, but liberal's to the bone." - me

Next, NBC will have Charles

Next, NBC will have Charles Manson on as an expert in mental health.

Yep But

Yep their getting millions in bonuses but whose in control? Scarry Ried, Nancy Pelousy, Rham Axelrod!

ATTACK *****

We should hire mikey moore to be an expert on attacking a pizza.

he looks like he'd be good at that.

Moore, if they completely

Moore, if they completely crashed it, where are the soup lines, as in the Great Depression? The unemployment has not reached 25% and hopefully never will again.

 'Today', you have been shallow and partisan, now you've gone even shallower. WOW! Using a partisan hack as your 'expert'. Fortunately your time slot is next to useless.

glutton

Looks like Moore is into far too many cheeseburgers,  That is a symptom of his capitalism.

Michael Moore has his terminology wrong

Michael Moore needs to realize he is wrong about terminology in the fact of capitalism was for MOM & POP, not few control all.  This in fact is not capitalism which allows for everyone the chance to excel in business they wish to operate.  Now it is corporatism and not even close to what the country was founded upon.  Only buying from locally manufactured goods and boycotting the major chain stores will quickly reduce the corporate takeover and return MOM & POP Capitalism.  The PEOPLE can put things back in place by taking easy steps to protect LOCAL BUSINESS vs. Corporate TAKEOVER. Streak of streakCom