GE stockholders getting fed up with MSNBC left-wing extremist bias – Immelt questioned

GE Stockholders apparently aren’t into the whole MSNBC bias thingy, with thrill up the legs, nor are they into interviews with ugly old washed up hollywood liberals calling people who attended the April 15th tea parties racists and rednecks. According to the Hollywood Reporter:

Later, during the umpteenth question about MSNBC, another shareholder’s microphone was cut, according to multiple attendees.

“The crowd was very upset with MSNBC because of its leftward tilt,” one attendee said. “Some former employees said they were embarrassed by it.”

One specific complaint about MSNBC concerned Keith Olbermann’s interview of actress Janeane Garofalo, who likened conservatives to racists and spoke of “the limbic brain inside a right-winger.”

“They were upset that Olbermann didn’t bother to challenge her,” one GE shareholder said…

“My biggest surprise was the open hostility to MSNBC,” another shareholder said. “It was noticeable and loud. I don’t remember any of this going on last year.”

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April 22, 2009 · Filed Under Liberal Media Bias


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  • sam sanders

    I know everyone in this country is focused on liberal versus conservative views, but the real issue at hand is whether we the common people (i.e., middle class)even have a say anymore. The media has lefties and righties as spokespersons and commentators, but ultimately, who owns the media and who has final say? Basically, six corporations (including GE, Viacom, Dysney, etc.) own all the media. If you look at who holds the majority of stock in these big six corporations it’s a list of banks. Most of the same banks that got bailed out starting with Bush’s TARP and now Obama’s bailout. If you think if McCain was in there that it would be any different, you aren’t paying attention. And that’s the way the bid dogs like it. If we stay busy squabbling about left and right wedge issues, they can effectively maintain the status quo. Truth is, we already live in a socialist country because our biggest industries and Wall Street are constantly sucking off the tax payer and then charging us for services while they reap record breaking profits. We just don’t get the benefits. Insead, we pay way too much for health care (remember before the election, when our system was broken, now, somehow magically, we have the best health care system in the world) and will continue to do so, as any reform that can pass will surely benefit the insurance oligarchy. I’m not saying we don’t need corporations, we do. Big is good in some respects. But right now a very few people are calling the shots. And our government, who’s job it is to keep capitalism working (regulate) and protect the individual from bottom line driven entities that don’t have time to think about the individual, is not doing it’s job. It won’t because congress is pretty much bought and paid for and we don’t hold them accountable. That’s why you may hear a lot of tough talk about the bonuses and see the televised investigations into bad financial practices where they bring in CEO’s and presidents of banks, but you will notice that they still get their bonuses and nothing really happens to them. Congress puts on a show for us (because they need to be re elected and we fall for the show everytime) but they will not bite the hand that feeds them. So don’t worry about socialism. It’s already here for our entire financial center. We basically live in a corporate oligarchy supported by a populous that makes decisions based on misinformation that is controlled by these very companies. I know that corporations drive the economy, but they are bottom line driven and can’t afford to care about America or Americans. It gets in the way of profit. Their only job is to make money to drive the economy. The government is supposed to mitigate this directive so that, for one, they prevent monopoly, because everyone can agree that capitalism doesn’t work without competition, and two, so the citizens have jobs and our economy benefits Americans. Deregulation policies have resulted in monopolies in many industries and corporations are always looking for a cheaper labor force, mostly to be found overseas. So, it shouldnt’ be too surprising that in our economic recovery, we have Wall Street doing quite well, while the American labor force is taking the biggest hit. The media and everything else that is corporate owned is inherently for the status quo, which is not usually associated with a liberal agenda. Rupert Murdock (just an example, it’s true for all media owners) may have liberal programming like the Simpsons and own lots of interests in the hotel porn industry, but, it’s because it makes money, not because Murdock is liberal. If it doesn’t make money, it’s gone. If a story breaks that is bad for his business and or one of his investments or one of his primary stockholder’s investments, the story doesn’t run. So at the end of the day, the media is a lapdog to keep us distracted. Quick example: Immelt, CEO of GE who was doing business in Iran during their nuke controversy (which wasn’t illegal but politically untimely), told Olberman to back off O’Rielly because Immelt worked out a deal with Murdock that Olberman would back off O’Rielly in exchange for O’Rielly not running a story about GE doing business in Iran. GE didn’t want a bunch of people boycotting their products because they know how good Fox is at getting people riled up over the wrong stuff. All the networks are good at getting us riled up over the wrong stuff. That seems to be their job. I challenge anyone to get Olberman or Beck or whoever to do a story on who really owns the media and how this affects the delivery of information and, ultimately, our democratic process. They won’t/can’t do it. They’d be fired. So maybe we can stop jumping back and forth between republicans and democrats at the poles. They all work for the same people (not us). The people who give them large contributions. These are the people who get lots of face time with our representatives and who end up writing legislation to regulate their own industries. We have had a scary glimpse of where this last thirty years of deregulation and trickle down economic policy is going to end up: Complete socialism for Corporations and the Financial sector. It truly has become the worst democracy money can buy. We need to stop fighting and start holding our representative accountable. The good news is they still need us to get elected. Lets stop taking the bait. Every president, republican or democrat, who has been elected in the past thirty years had run on a platform of “change.” Has anyone really seen any change when it comes to the middle class picking up the tab for everything. Remember, The comfort of the rich is dependent on an abundance of the poor. The need us as much as we need them. Things should be a little more balanced – Even Buffet (Warren, not Jimmy) says he’s not paying his share. Buffet is a rich individual but he’s a pauper compared to the corporate entities who eschew their tax responsibilities. Once we get a legitimate democratic process back, and we demand our media provide us with accurate information or we won’t watch (that’s the only way to get to the oligarchs, threaten to stop the cash flow) maybe we can then have rational discussions about wedge issues based on facts and not emotionally driven platitudes and sensationalized infotainment.