It was literally a show stopper.
At the end of his "60 Minutes" interview with Lesley Stahl this evening, GE CEO Jeff Immelt asked her: "I don't know why you don't" root for GE, and by extension for American business, the way company employees do? Did Immelt leave Stahl speechless? Rather than providing an answer, 60 Minutes could only cut to its tick-tick-tick stopwatch. View video after the jump.
Watch one of those rare moments in which someone calls a member of the MSM to account.
LESLEY STAHL: Shouldn't American corporations--don't they have some kind of civic responsibilty to create jobs? No?
Right, Lesley: they should commite corporate suicide, becoming uncompetitive by focusing on the over-taxed, over-regulated, articially high-wage American market. Immelt wasn't buying.
JEFFREY IMMELT: My name's not above the door. I work for investors. Investors want to see us grow earnings and cash. They want to see us being competitive. They want to see us prosper.
STAHL: He wishes the public felt the same.
IMMELT: I want you to root for me. Everybody in Germany roots for Siemens. Everybody in Japan roots for Toshiba. Everybody in China roots for China South Rail. I want you to say: win, GE.
STAHL: Do you not see any reason that maybe the public maybe doesn't hold American corporations up here?
IMMELT: I think this notion that it's the population of the US against the big companies is just wrong. It's just wrong-minded. And when I walk through a factory with you, or anybody, you know, our employees basically like us.
STAHL: They do: I saw it.
IMMELT: They root for us. They want us to win. I don't know why you don't.
