ABC Highlights 'Shameful Chapter' of CEO Excess; Forgets Government Role

Private CEOs? Yes. Government-sponsored CEOs? No.

In a September 19 "Good Morning America" preview of a report scheduled to appear on the same day's edition of ABC's "20/20," chief investigative reporter Brian Ross took a few jabs at the rich who had fallen.

Ross called it "the end of a shameful chapter of American history," and although top executives on Wall Street had been hit hard in a way "they never thought was possible ... it's hardly the soup kitchen."

There was also much indignation in the report over the assets of Richard S. Fuld Jr., chairman and chief executive officer of now fallen Lehman Brothers Inc., and Alan Schwartz, the CEO of now "busted" Bear Stearns.

But Ross didn't include any outrage over the extravagant wealth of the former Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac CEOs - the two GSEs recently bailed out by taxpayers after years of mismanagement. Fannie and Freddie CEOs also made million-dollar salaries.

The Associated Press reported that former Freddie Mac chief Richard Syron made $19.8 million in compensation in 2007, July 18.

Well before the buyout of Fannie Mae, Reuters reported April 7 that chief executive Daniel Mudd's compensation included just under $1 million in salary, $2.2 million in incentive payments, about $10 million from stock and option grants, and $153,531 in other compensation.