Bad Company III
For American Businessmen in the News,
the Defense Never Rests
 

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Worst Five Attacks on Businessmen

     5. Anthony Mason of CBS’s “Evening News” mimicked critics in a September 13 interview with Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott about improving the company’s image. “What responsibility does a company have – particularly a company with your power and reach – to pay a living wage?” Mason asked. Citing the store’s recent increases in wages and health care options, Mason prodded, “isn’t it – is a suggestion that maybe you weren’t paying enough and your benefits weren’t good enough?”


     4. On November 30 Windows Vista launched and Fox News’s Stuart Varney hammered Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on “Your World with Neil Cavuto.” “You’ve [Microsoft] lost your reputation,” Varney asserted. “Stock’s not done much,” he added. He also cited the philanthropy of Warren Buffett and Bill Gates and then prodded, “What’ve you got planned for your billions?” to which Ballmer graciously replied, “Well, I like to handle things a little bit more privately.”


     3. Brian Williams of the “NBC Nightly News” introduced a segment on “runaway pay” and the “stratospheric sums” of executive compensation April 20 by pointing to United Healthcare CEO William McGuire’s “staggering $1.6 billion” in stock options. Chief Financial Correspondent Anne Thompson added that Lee Raymond, Exxon’s former CEO, was “unapologetic” for his “headline-making pay.” Both companies were very successful – meaning shareholders made money – under those CEOs’ leadership, but Thompson dismissed that, saying “some still see their huge compensation packages as CEO pay run amok.”


     2. On May 4, CNN’s Lou Dobbs struck at “oil industry executives” who according to a study Dobbs cited “boost their profit margins at the expense of hard-working American consumers.” Ignoring the fact that expanding existing refineries was an option, reporter Peter Viles scoffed at ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson’s estimation that building a new refinery would be “bad for business.” “Nothing bad for business about $3 a gallon gasoline, Lou,” Viles said.


     1. In a January 6 story following the Sago mine tragedy, ABC’s Elizabeth Vargas said it appeared “billionaire chairman” Wilbur Ross, CEO of International Coal Group and owner of the mine, “was well aware of the mine’s extensive safety problems.” Chief Investigative Correspondent Brian Ross then hit hard at Wilbur Ross, portraying him as a “socially prominent billionaire” “headquartered in New York City.” The CEO barely got a word in edgewise. More than a year later, when investigators determined lightning strikes had caused Sago’s tragic losses, “World News” ran a news brief about it.