Boss Immelt, In the Public Eye

As the whole wide world--including media rivals, such as CBS--is starting to notice the unfairness of the federal government's mega-bailout to General Electric, here's another homage to Thomas Nast, who was the best ever at capturing a political idea and distilling it down into a picture.

The legendary crook Boss Tweed said after he had been nailed by the law, people don't always read complicated news stories, (such as Jeff Gerth's detailed takedown of GE for Pro Publica) but they do understand pictures. And so maybe, with pictures as well as text, people will come to understand the vast and costly conspiracy that General Electric has waged against the public interest. Maybe it's all legal--but if it is, it's lobbyist-legal--but it's still a horrendous abuse.

Thanks to Jim Hubbell. Or, I should say, il miglior fabbro.

Fox News Channel University Presents...

...The Little Rockers!

Meet Matt Egan

The New York Times' Cara Buckley writes a good-natured profile of Matt Egan, 24, who works at Fox Business News.

Matt, now on his way to a great career, was part of the Roger Ailes Apprenticeship Program at Fox News.

Yet the Times story portrays Matt as a good guy, and Fox a good place to work.

Quick! Call Media Matters!!

"How a Loophole Benefits GE in Bank Rescue/Industrial Giant Becomes Top Recipient in Debt-Guarantee Program"

The Washington Post has an important story on GE: front page, above the fold, detailing how the federal government has given GE hundreds of billions in subsidies.

Jeff Gerth, formerly of the NY Times, and now at Pro Publica, the muckraking outfit, teamed up with another reporter, Brady Dennis, to write a great story for the WaPo, headlined, "How a Loophole Benefits GE in Bank Rescue/Industrial Giant Becomes Top Recipient in Debt-Guarantee Program." It's quite shocking, how GE has played Uncle Sam like a fiddle, getting hundreds of billions in subsidies. Here's the heart of it:

General Electric, the world's largest industrial company, has quietly become the biggest beneficiary of one of the government's key rescue programs for banks.

At the same time, GE has avoided many of the restrictions facing other financial giants getting help from the government.

The company did not initially qualify for the program, under which the government sought to unfreeze credit markets by guaranteeing debt sold by banking firms. But regulators soon loosened the eligibility requirements, in part because of behind-the-scenes appeals from GE.

As a result, GE has joined major banks collectively saving billions of dollars by raising money for their operations at lower interest rates. Public records show that GE Capital, the company's massive financing arm, has issued nearly a quarter of the $340 billion in debt backed by the program, which is known as the Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program, or TLGP. The government's actions have been "powerful and helpful" to the company, GE chief executive Jeffrey Immelt acknowledged in December.

GE's finance arm is not classified as a bank. Rather, it worked its way into the rescue program by owning two relatively small Utah banking institutions, illustrating how the loopholes in the U.S. regulatory system are manifest in the government's historic intervention in the financial crisis.

And yes, there are some in the Obama administration who want to crack down on this giveaway, albeit after the money has been given away. But we'll have to wait to see if even that puny ex post facto reform survives GE's lobbying blitz.

H/T to the great Thomas Nast, the father of modern political cartooning in America.

Victory for Obama!

And all hail to his heroic television! Especially the General Electric Collective! Long live government-owned means of the media production!

Revolution from Above

During Barack Obama's administration, the greatest wealth transfer in human history is occurring--from the poor and the middle class to the rich. How so? Yes, TARP dates back to last fall, when George W. Bush was president, but then-Senator Obama happily voted for it, urged on by the same advisers who surround him now. Meanwhile, other bank bailouts--including the notorious $139 billion bailout of GE Capital, a part of General Electric--the stimulus package, and now the "cap and trade" system which further enrich neo-Enron-ish swindlers, add up to a truly immense conspiracy against the public interest.

And when the history of this time is recorded, Jeff Immelt will be remembered as one of these new-style American Revolutionaries--a leading recipient of bailout money, and a leading propagandist for the new financial order, thanks to groups such as US Climate Action Partnership, which is guaranteed to make billions through politicized rent-seeking.

In other words, this American revolution has nothing to do with the freedom-loving values of the original American Revolution. This revolution is infinitely cynical, and, frankly, it is evil. It is not a revolution for freedom, it is a revolution against freedom. And as such, it is more likely what we saw in Russia nine decades ago.

So let's make sure Comrade Immelt is remembered properly, in the context of others like him. You remember VI Lenin? He was a revolutionary, too, although he was no champion of ordinary people. The Bolshevik revolution was not a popular rebellion against the Tsar. That revolution had already happened eight months before, in February 1917, led by a democrat, Alexander Kerensky. No, the Bolshevik takeover, in October 1917, led by Lenin, was a coup d'etat. A takeover by Lenin and his fellow conspirators, who were anything but democrats and populists.

Obey MSNBC

Obey GE

Obey Olby

What happens when a spontaneous protest movement congeals into rigid and stern orthodoxy? Obviously a lot of hearts get broken. Obviously a lot of skulls get crushed.

The street artist Shepard Fairey has made a big splash in recent years, not only with his iconic Obama "Hope" poster, but because of his "Obey Giant" series of posters, tee shirts and other graphics. For a while there, it seemed as if Fairey had captured the anti-Bush/Cheney mood. And one result was the 2006 and 2008 elections, which went badly for the Republican Party.

OK, fine.

But who's the giant now? And who's stomping on hope? The Democrats are in charge now, and they can pass whatever they want--a stimulus package, an idiotic cap & trade legislation. Although, of course, not everyone inside the Obama movement is still happy. Newsbusters' Mitchell Blatt posted a great item on Friday, detailing how the far left has turned against their onetime hero, Keith Olbermann. Why? Because the far left has soured on Obama, mostly over his continuation of Bush-era policies on detention and surveillance, but also over rising unemployment and general fatigue over bailouts and boondoggles for billionaires.

And so now the left is turning against Obama's tax-funded ideological enforcers, such as Olbermann.

So what will Olby do, if he is not obeyed? Stay tuned!

Bringing in Conan O'Brien Was Jeff Zucker's "D'oh!" Moment (One of Many, Come To Think Of It)

Is it just me, or was NBC chief Jeff Zucker separated at birth from Homer Simpson?

Nikki Finke has the details on one of the great boneheaded plays of network history--how, in a Homer-like misjudgment, NBC threw away its super-valuable "Tonight Show" franchise:

It's clear right now that Dave's Late Show is topping Conan's Tonight Show in audience size. This is the first time Dave has done this to The Tonight Show in a full week of original broadcasts since 2005, and that has to worry NBC Universal Jeff Zucker, whose decision it was to rotate out Leno and rotate in Conan.

Definitely a "D'oh!" moment for NBC and the long-suffering shareholders of GE. The next shoe to drop, of course, will be the exit of Ben Silverman, and then perhaps a shuffle at NBC News.

(Thanks again, Bob Wright, for getting GE into the media biz!)

General Electric? Try General Entitlement!

So General Electric gets billions from Uncle Sam, and then seeks to wiggle out of contracts. Here are the details from Paul Glader, writing in The Wall Street Journal:

Congress's involvement in the dispute highlights a consequence of the government's growing role in the economy. GE has said it hopes to generate up to $100 billion in revenue from the economic-stimulus package, and it has issued U.S.-backed bonds with lower interest rates than other GE debt. Now, Greenbrier is trying to use that against GE.

And so there go 3000 jobs, according to the WSJ, in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.

And it's part of a larger phenomenon: GE, being so favored by the government, is now in a position to do everything cheaper than its competitors. That's not fair, it's just politics. And the reason why MSNBC, along with NBC and CNBC, are the most valuable rent-seeking rainmakers that GE has in its corporate arsenal.

"Anderson Cooper's Big Fat Coming Out Party" -- Not That There's Anything Wrong With That!

Gawker reports on a gay party in New York City, you decide.

And then La Anderson himself, of course, whatever feels right for him.

A Game of Political-Economic Chess

General Electric at the Government Trough

General Electric is using its resources--most notably, NBC, MSNBC, and CNBC--to get its way in Washington DC.

First, The New York Times reports:

General Electric, for one, is already opposing this aspect of the plan, which could force it to offload its GE Capital finance arm. Whether companies should have no option about such a split, even with a transition period, is arguable — though in G.E.’s case, it might not be a bad idea for shareholders as well as taxpayers given that the finance unit has lately dragged down the value of the industrial business.

G.E. could also be affected by heavier regulation of so-called industrial loan corporations. These businesses have historically been regulated lightly because of their traditionally small size and limited purposes. But the administration argues they resemble banks and should be regulated as such. That sounds right, but companies that own such entities are already on the warpath.

And The Washington Post adds this:

Does anyone seriously think the United States would be reduced to a second-rate economic power if there weren't any CDOs of CDOs, or if the number of credit default swaps on General Electric bonds were limited to the number of outstanding General Electric bonds, or if reasonable leverage limits were put on hedge funds, private-equity funds or structured investment vehicles?

Photoillustration of Jeff Immelt, with appreciation to the legendary George Grosz, who cuttingly illustrated the corruption and hypocrisy of post-WW 1 Germany.

MSNBC is MIA

"At MSNBC, weekends aren't newsworthy." That's the scathing headline atop Scott Collins' piece in the LA Times.

As Scott put it:

Over the weekend, with its cable rivals devoting generous airtime to demonstrations convulsing Tehran and online viewers transfixed by amateur video of a young woman apparently felled by a sniper's bullet, MSNBC stuck to its usual diet of taped documentaries, including one titled "Sex Slaves in America." A rerun of the prison documentary "Lockup" aired Saturday night. Meanwhile, anchor Shepard Smith was giving viewers of Fox News Channel a special two-hour wrap-up of Iranian developments. CNN likewise devoted substantial blocks of time to covering the crisis live.

And then Scott took note of the response:

On the Web, MSNBC's coverage decision generated some furious reactions. On Twitter, one user called the network "MIA"; another wrote, "MSNBC closed eyes to murder in Iran." And the Huffington Post's Tom D'Antoni blogged that MSNBC "disgraced themselves this weekend by ignoring the biggest story in the world."

Indeed, MSNBC is MIA, as the Tweeter observed. So maybe we should just call the network "MIABC."

I guess the bottom line is that if the news story doesn't entail sucking up to Democrats--and make no mistake, the Iran story has made the Obama administration look terrible--then MSNBC isn't interested in covering the story.

America's Talking

The Cable Gamer has noticed that the words "America's Talking" have started appearing on the Fox Nation logo.

The phrase America's Talking has a fascinating lineage, preceding the existence of Fox News, to say nothing of Fox Nation. Indeed, it is fair to say that America's Talking was sort of the proto-Fox News, back in the mid-90s.

The Cable Gamer thinks that this is the beginning of something big.

MSNBC Kicks Back to DC, On Behalf of General Electric: The Recession is Over in Powertown!

"WaPo to MSNBC: 'Is The Recession Over?'" That was headline in TV Newswer, recounting The Washington Post's admiring coverage of the MSNBC party at the Radio-Television Correspondents Dinner on Friday night.

The recession is over in DC, of course--heck, there never was a recession inside the Beltway. And General Electric is one of the reasons for the permanent boom in Washington.

GE is a leading rent-seeker from the federal government. GE needs the feds to do lots of things for it: bail out GE Capital, for one, and also to finance the purchase of various energy tools and technologies that GE makes and licenses. In addition, GE needs Uncle Sam to create a heavy regulatory environment, including "cap and trade" legislation, that will make GE's products even more valuable.

So it's no surprise that GE is increasing its presence in DC, even as its media cat's paws, most notably MSNBC and NBC, do the work of buttering up government officials, especially Barack Obama and other top Democrats. And at MSNBC in particular, Obama-olatry has reached cult proportions.

While this sort of servile politics is an old story, it doesn't end well. In ancient Rome, all the action was in Rome. So if you were ambitious you made your way to the imperial court, to bask in the wealth of the emperor. Yes, all the wealth was plundered or stolen or extracted from slave labor, but it was fun for the aristocrats and other swells on the make. The same was true for the royal court of the Sun King, Louis XIV. The pleasuredome he built for himself in Versailles was built for the nobility, as well. They were all expected to join him there, living it up--so that he could keep an eye on them.

And now the same thing is happening in DC--the federal government is getting richer and richer, and it expects ever more lavish parties held in its honor. And MSNBC came through, that's for sure. As the pic above, from the WP shows, MSNBC wasn't above tooting its own horn, but the real it was blowing was Washington's.

Of course, the rest of the country is on its own.

The Obama Media Plan--Or Has It Already Happened?

That is to say, is Jim Hubbbell's visual creation here a leading indicator of the plan that the Obama administration has for the media, or is it simply a statement of fact, as to how the media operate today?

Iran: The World Is Watching--But Not MSNBC

I give great credit to both CNN and Fox for going near round-the-clock on the Iran protests. MSNBC, uh, not so much. The screen grab above, from National Review Online's Greg Pollowitz, speaks for me.

Could it be that MSNBC is just so crass that it can't see the need to yank its usual weekend collection of re-runs and infomercials? Surely that's a partial explanation, but it could also be the case that GE/NBC/MSNBC hierarchs realize that their paymaster, Barack Obama, has been looking bad during all the unrest in Iran. I mean, Obama went to Cairo just this month to deliver a realpolitik defense of the status quo in the Middle East and Iran, indicating that he could work with whatever dictator was in charge in whatever regime. And now that status quo seems to be coming unglued, at least in Iran, thus undercutting Obama. So obviously we should expect MSNBC to cover any of that, could we? Unless and until, of course, Obama changes course. And when Keith and Rachel and Chris--and that idiot Ed--figure out a way to blame everything on Bush and Cheney.

When CBS Decides To Get Some of that ABC Obama Action

Thanks to Jim Hubbell.

Just another of those "network-White House co-productions"

The Baltimore Sun's David Zurawik took a brave stand in his post on ABC's upcoming infomercial for the Obama health care plan. And even more bravely, he stuck up for Fox, as part of a general criticism of the MSM:

Given all the reckless and irresponsible words uttered by the likes Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity, I hesitate to write these words, but good for Fox. It must be doing something right, if it has the president complaining about the tiny bit of scrutiny he gets on TV.

On the other hand, if Fox News is our last, best TV watchdog on the White House, then the TV press, as well as media critics like me, should be profoundly embarassed, and vow to start doing a better job -- immediately.

Photo illustration credit: Jim Hubbell.

Olbermann Rants--Calling Dr. Freud!

Keith Olbermann obviously had fun re-enacting the voices of an e-mail dispute over the name "Elizabeth." Maybe too much fun.

Or maybe he was practicing "psychological projection."

Or maybe it was plain ol' misogyny.

Or maybe something in him, repressed for so-o-o-o long, is yearning to break free.

Psychological mysteries to be unraveled, on MSNBC every night. If we keep watching Keith long enough, all his inner demons will emerge briefly--before he is whisked off to extended treatment. It's only a matter of time.

Here's what Wikipedia has to say about "psychological projection":

Psychological projection (or projection bias) is when a person's personal attributes, thoughts, and/or emotions are ascribed onto another person or people. A modern view of projections is that they are prerequisites for normal social functioning. A person who is incapable of ascribing his/hers own feelings on other people would have great difficulties in understanding them. This may happen in Aspergers Syndrome.

In classical psychology projection are always seen as a defense mechanism which occurs when a person's own unacceptable or threatening feelings are repressed and then attributed to someone else.

An example of this behavior might be blaming another for one's own failure. The mind may avoid the discomfort of consciously admitting personal faults by keeping those feelings unconscious, and redirect their libidinal satisfaction by attaching, or "projecting," those same faults onto another.

Projection reduces anxiety by allowing the expression of the unwanted unconscious impulses or desires without letting the conscious mind recognize them.

The theory was developed by Sigmund Freud and further refined by his daughter Anna Freud; for this reason, it is sometimes referred to as "Freudian Projection"

H/T: Anne Schroeder of Politico.

"Obama Can't Win Going After Fox News" -- But Let Him Try!

It's a familiar argument: politicians don't win by going after the media. You know the old saw (I am really showing my age here), "don't pick fights with people who buy their ink by the barrel."

One who makes that point with his usual incisiveness is Jeff Bercovici, who first came to prominence writing for the sadly defunct Conde Nast Portfolio, and who is now writing for an AOL publication, Daily Finance. As Jeff explains:

But just because you're right doesn't mean you're well-advised to go around saying so. Obama, who lectured Ailes in person at a secret meeting last summer, may think he can browbeat Fox into being nicer to him. He can't. Fox made its bones on the notion that it, alone among TV networks, is not part of the Liberal Media Conspiracy. For Obama to single out Fox for censure only confirms that impression. Not to mention that Obama's complaining about Fox's darts while gratefully basking in MSNBC's equal-but-opposite tilt sounds suspiciously like whining. (David Zurawik called Obama's diss of Fox News "a childish, silly bit of gamemanship by a president.")

Above all, it's futile. For whatever reason, Fox's ratings have climbed in recent months as the network's stridency towards him has escalated. As long as that trend keeps up, no amount of finger-wagging from the Oval Office is going to make a difference.

OK, smart commentary, as one always expects from Jeff. But what's really interesting is that the lefties at the Huffington Post seem to agree with Jeff's assessment. They linked to his story, under an approving headline--see screen grab above.

Be careful, Mr. President. When even your loyalists in the media are telling you are making a mistake, you probably are.

And in the meantime, Roger Ailes & Co. are obviously laughing all the way to the Nielsen Bank.

Take The Nation--Please!

Thanks to Jim Hubbell.

"Fox Derangement Syndrome"

One Cable Gamer made the observation that the left seems to have shifted from "Bush Derangement Syndrome" to "Fox Derangement Syndrome."

What else could explain the seeming determination of Barack Obama to attack Fox? I mean, from his point of view, it's not even smart: He is building up Fox, making most of the MSM look like colorless tools. (But not MSNBC--they look like Obama groupies.)

Fox's Bill O'Reilly and Neal Cavuto have fired back at Obama. Cavuto played this clip from Obama's May 9 appearance at the White House Correspondents Association dinner, in which the President said to the crowd, "Most of you covered me, all of you voted for me." OK, that's seemingly kind of arrogant and presumptuous of Obama to say that, but what happened next is truly revealing: The crowd erupted in laughter and cheers. That's a point worth emphasizing: Obama outed the MSM, and the MSM was so happy to be recognized as his fans that they exulted in their own degradation.

And then, amidst the chortling, Obama inserted, "Apologies to the Fox table." And that little aside generated still more applause.

Here's the bottom line: the MSM are so in the tank for Obama that they can't even see straight. And so when they do look out and see Fox, not being part of the cheering section, they get mad. Mad to the point of derangement.

Image credit: Independent Conservative. (Look closely at the reworked caption.)

The Nation Magazine Attempts to Piggyback On Fox

OK, the words that the Nation uses aren't exactly flattering, but the over all gestalt of the ad on the Nation's site can be summed up in two words: "pure jealousy."

Obama News Tonight

How did MSNBC let ABC get so far ahead in the Obamalotry sweepstakes?

Thanks to Jim Hubbell.

UPDATE: TV Newswer reports that Linda Douglass, a press secretary for the Obama campaign last year, is the press secretary for the health care effort. So I guess that explains it.

Welcome to the Abramstrix

Here's an interesting Page 6 item on the latest business venture of Dan Abrams, who seems to make a career out of straddling the line between journalism and entrepreneurialism--although interestingly, none of the usual media watchdogs seem much interested. (Could it be that Dan's father is Floyd Abrams, the liberal legal icon?)

Abrams set up Abrams Research last year, and yet he is still listed as "Chief Legal Correspondent" for NBC and an anchor at MSNBC. That can't be bad for business, huh? Here's the piece, which suggests that Abrams will making "Matrix"-like cyber judgements--or pretending to:

THE elbow-tossing among the media elite is about to get even sharper, thanks to Dan Abrams. We hear certain top-tier advertisers have gotten a sneak preview of the former MSNBC anchor's new Web site, Mediaite, which promises, among other things, "a proprietary mathematical algorithm (using a host of factors) to rank the relevance of hundreds of top media figures in various categories." Marketers could use the site to measure Tina Brown versus Arianna Huffington, or Diane Sawyer versus Katie Couric, or Jim Cramer versus Jon Stewart. So, is it time to start sucking up to Abrams? He'd only say, "I will not be the one making any of those decisions."

For her part, The Cable Gamer wonders whether the Abrams Matrix--Abramstrix?--will be cool, like the first "Matrix" film, or a flop, like the second and third "Matrix" movies?

Public Enemies

The LA Times' Jim Puzzanghera reports:

Under the plan, expected to be released Wednesday, the government would have new powers to seize key companies -- such as insurance giant American International Group Inc. -- whose failure jeopardizes the financial system. Currently, the government's authority to seize companies is mostly limited to banks.

And soon, these guys will be running the media, too.

The GE Octopus

In 1901, legendary muckraking journalist Frank Norris wrote The Octopus, about Standard Oil's chokehold on the California economy.

Today, we need new muckrakers to make sense of a whole new wave of corporate scandals, most of which involve big business getting into bed with big government. A case in point is Jeff Immelt's relationship with Barack Obama, and, more to the point, General Electric's relationship with the US government.

OBEY PBS

Free Press presents: Public Media's Moment.

Government Media: It's Coming

Headlines in The Drudge Report and Fox Nation speak to ABC News' willingness to sell itself out to the Obama administration on the health care issue. (That's a clever piece of PhotoShop-ing from Drudge, above.)

But the movement is deeper than liberals who love Obama: There are forces in motion to have the government start buying up the media--what's left of it. That's the gist of a new piece by Peter Osnos, a former Washington Post reporter, now a senior fellow at the liberal Century Foundation. Osnos praises a long report from Free Press, yet another liberal advocacy group, which calls for government subsidies for the media, through a variety of different spigots. The 284-page Free Press report is here, and I am reading it now.

UPDATE: Jim Hubbell, great Cable Gamer, did a better version of the conflation of ABC and Obama, and so I have used it above.

And interestingly enough, Jim uses Corel. Go Canada!

Is GE More Like Watergate? Or Vietnam? Or Halliburton?

Over at American Thinker, Randy Fardal writes a terrific piece comparing Barack Obama's economic policy to Lyndon Johnson's Vietnam policy. The whole piece is worth reading, but Randy's treatment of GE and its editorial control over NBC and its media sub-properties, including MSNBC and CNBC, should be of particular interest to Cable Gamers:

General Electric CEO, Jeff Immelt, claimed last month that his company sells "about 70" green products, representing about $18B in revenue this year. But it seems unlikely that all of those products would be economically viable in a free market without American taxpayer subsidies and tax credits.

Some say the global "green" movement is the new home of neo-Marxists. Others say it's a leftist organized religion. Under Don Obama, it seems more like organized crime.

GE owns NBC, MSNBC, Telemundo, and CNBC television networks. NBC has promoted GE's taxpayer-subsidized products in its "Green Week" news features. For instance, NBC Nightly News ran segments with an FPL spokesman that advocated a nationalized electricity grid. But reporter Anne Thompson neglected to mention that NBC parent company GE supplied many, if not all, of FPL's installed base of thousands of taxpayer-subsidized wind turbines. She did report that a nationalized power grid would benefit the wind and solar utilities because most are located far from existing high voltage lines, but she neglected to disclose that many of those utilities are GE customers.

Imagine the leftist howls if Halliburton bought NBC and then sought to generate more profits by running a series of "Drill, Baby, Drill" news features. --Especially if it did not disclose any potential conflict of interest.

Mr. Immelt is a member of President Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board. Think of it as Mr. Obama's military advisors in his war on free enterprise. According to reports last month, 15 of the 16 board members are carbon tax advocates and at least six, including Mr. Immelt, stand to gain financially from the recommendations they give to Mr. Obama. The board's sole defender of free enterprise is Harvard economist Martin Feldstein. When 15 hyenas and one gazelle vote on what to have for dinner, guess who gets devoured.

Many points in Randy's piece are worth repeating, including this: '

Imagine the leftist howls if Halliburton bought NBC and then sought to generate more profits by running a series of "Drill, Baby, Drill" news features.

And so I will.

MSNBC Does Something Interesting

SpectraMSNBC is an avant-garde website hosted by MSNBC that obviously features some experimental stuff. I think it's pretty cool. All those icons float/rotate around, and you can click on them and read the story. It's not quite a river of news--more like a circle of news. Above, please find a screen grab.

"Time Warner: Is it Time to Dump Time Inc.?"

That's the headline in Jon Fine's provocative column in the June 11 ish of Business Week.

GE's Imagination At Work

Your Tax Dollars At Work: The GE Case Study

On "Fox News Watch" this weekend, Jim Pinkerton made the point, yet again, that MSNBC and NBC were media-stooges for the government, possibly because of ideology, but more likely because GE is so in hoc to Uncle Sam--a point made here at TCG many times. The point doesn't become less true, or less outrageous, by virtue of repetition. What's so interesting is that so few seem to care that the federal government is trampling the First Amendment by buying up the media.

Moreover, TCG was inspired to see what sort of company GE is. And here's what I found, on an admittedly liberal website. But nobody seems to be disputing the basic facts.

So this is what we're getting for our tax money.

Robert Gibbs Meets the Press

The Cable Gamer will admit to a certain affection for Michael Wolff of Vanity Fair. Yes, he's a self-absorbed blowhard, and yes, he got a lot of facts wrong about Rupert Murdoch in his recent book, but he is always interesting, nonetheless. A case in point is his new piece in VF on the management of the White House press operation, under the leadership of presidential press secretary Robert Gibbs, and about 60 others in the WH message-meistering biz.

Wolff evinces a certain grudging respect for Gibbs & Co., but he is thoroughly scornful of the White House press corps, eliciting this quote from David Corn, in which the Mother Jones reporter declares that Gibbs' job is "to talk to the dinosaurs."

Zing!

See It Now

The Cable Game WorldWide

Cyril Blet, writing in Foreign Policy magazine, makes the point that worldwide cable news industry, far beyond the USA, is THE vital form of communication. Yes, the Net is cool, but TV is dominant, and probably always will be.

NBC Tries to Stifle Coverage -- Nikke Finke Reports on GE's Thought Control

"EXCLUSIVE: GE/NBCU TRYING TO STIFLE OTHER MEDIA'S COVERAGE OF COMPANY: Immelt Orders Nielsen Media Iced Over GE-NBCU-Obama Story: NBCU's Zucker Follows Orders And Freezes Out The Hollywood Reporter For Past 6 Weeks."

That's the headline atop Nikki Finke's story in the always must-read Deadline Hollywood. Here's the best stuff:

It's a very dangerous situation when any huge multinational corporation wages war against media companies. Especially when that huge multinational corporation is General Electric, which itself owns a media company, NBC Universal, and it's using all its power and influence and money to try to harm another media company, Nielsen, and Nielsen Business Media, and its trade publication The Hollywood Reporter. This certainly sounds like a situation which the FCC, and the FTC, and the U.S. Justice Department should be investigating. Just one problem: the controversy stems from GE/NBCU's coverage of President Obama. Here's what happened:

According to my sources inside and outside Nielsen Business Media, The Hollywood Reporter trade publication ran a story dated April 22nd and updated on April 24th covering the "drama" at the most recent GE shareholders meeting in Orlando. THR's West Coast Business Editor Paul Bond wasn't sent to the meeting, but he interviewed about half a dozen people who'd been inside the shareholders meeting and told him what transpired (see below). Bond's THR story focused on the attempts by stockholders and Fox News Channel and other media to find out whether or not GE Chairman/CEO Jeffrey Immelt ordered his news operations to be less critical of President Obama and his policies.

Of course, Barack Obama's government is not interested in investigating GE's efforts at suppressing free speech and investigatory accountability. His government hopes GE succeeds.

Jeff Bercovici Returns to The Cable Game

The Cable Gamer was sorry to see Conde Nast Portfolio fold, in large part because she always thought that Jeff Bercovici, their media writer/blogger, was exactly what a journalist should be--knowing and fair-minded. And happily, he is back now with an AOL website, Daily Finance.

Jeff is always a must-read, wherever he is!

Fox At The Top of the Heap

"Cable News Ratings: Fox News Channel Still On Top: MSNBC second in 25-54 demo, topping CNN for third straight month." That's the headline from Broadcasting & Cable's Marisa Guthrie.

So The Cable Gamer has to ask: Why does Jon Klein still have his job? CNN has gone from first to third, or even fourth.

Answer: Klein has his job for the same reason that Jeff Zucker has his: If you say the right (as in, politically correct) things, and if you go to the suitably trendy parties, you are immune from the normal workings of the market.

It's either that, or else Klein and Zucker have hot dossiers on their superiors.

Photo Illustration Credit: Jim Hubbell

"No bull: Campbell Brown returns to fourth place"

That's the headline atop James Hibberd's "Live Feed" blog in The Hollywood Reporter.

THR reports, you decide.

Photo illustration credit: Jim Hubbell, the Whistler of Whitesboro.