GE and MSNBC

http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2010/01/ge-and-msnbc

Saturday Night Live's mockery of President Obama may be one good reason that GE is eager to sell NBC to Comcast, I've suggested. For a company that claims GE means "stimulus" and "government" to also own television channels that do political commentary can be a complicated thing. If the Republicans ever come back to power in Washington, and if GE still owned MSNBC, the Republicans might remember MSNBC on-air personality Ed Schultz's proclamation "if I lived in Massachusetts I'd try to vote 10 times. I don't know if they'd let me or not, but I'd try to. Yeah, that's right. I'd cheat to keep these bastards out. I would. 'Cause that's exactly what they are." Or his subsequent clarification, "I meant to say, if I could vote 20 times, that's what I'd do ...Let me be very clear – I'm not advocating voter fraud, I'm just telling you what I would do. That's how bad I want Scott Brown to lose!" Anyway, with those kinds of on-air comments, you wonder whether Timothy Geithner's on-the-record statement that the government would never let General Electric fail would continue to be operative indefinitely. So whatever other reasons there are for GE to sell MSNBC, insulating GE from the fallout from these sorts of flaps has got to be on the list.

by Editor  |  Jan 19, 2010 at 9:23 am Related Topics:  General Electric, Press, Timothy Geithner receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free futureofcapitalism.com mailing list