Clear thinking and straight talk from the top of a mountain.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Out of State Blogger Takes Issue With Reporters
You know, I'm feeling a little guilty. I had nothing to say about former Senator Manny Aragon's send off to prison. Maybe, I'm just feeling Manny Aragon fatigue. We're going on three years since I first started talking about, at the time, Manny's pending indictment.
Manny Aragon was one of New Mexico’s most powerful law makers and power brokers. A former Senate president, Aragon was this week convicted and given a 67 month sentence for lining his pockets and that of his co-conspiritors with millions in fraudulently billed state contracting money.
While his “iconic” status is mentioned and his long standing position as a “Senate leader” is dutifully chronicled, his status as a Democrat doesn’t seem to make the cut of a large portion of the stories on his sentencing. This is a common practice of the Old Media. The word “Democrat” never seems to escape the editor’s cut in a story about a criminal Democrat.
The Associated Press misses the fact in two versions of the story (here and here), so does the New Mexico Independent. KRQE News 13 doesn’t mention the party of Agagon or his co-conspiritor Raul Parra. The Albuquerque Journal also skips party mention in this story of reactions to the sentencing.
I must be losing my edge.
Update:Mark Bralley sent over a note to let me know that it's wrong to criticize the AP for the decision of local media editors.
Just under a week ago, I went after White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs for going on the attack against those in the entertainment news industry - keyword:entertainment - because I felt it was beneath the Office of the President, and just not a smart PR strategy.
Well, it looks like some of those same entertainment news guys who were on the attack are now making THE EXACT SAME MISTAKE as Press Secretary Gibbs. They're trying to defend themselves against a comedian. If you haven't seen this clip from the Daily Show, you have to watch it:
Okay, I've got a couple of thoughts on why this is so funny, but before I go into it, you have to watch the commentators reaction to Jon Stewart's bit:
Doesn't anyone get public relations advice anymore. These guys just made total fools of themselves. I can't believe they're whining about the content of a political comedy show.
Wall Street snapped out of its stupor and posted its best performance of the year Tuesday, finding a badly needed glimmer of optimism in the most unlikely of places: Citigroup is actually managing to turn a profit. The 379-point gain for the Dow Jones industrials, a rally of almost 6 percent, was a welcome break from almost uninterrupted selling. But just as almost nobody expects the banks to snap back to health, almost nobody thinks the market has hit its bottom.
"One day isn't going to make a trend," said Kurt Karl, chief U.S. economist at Swiss Re.
Citigroup Chief Executive Vikram Pandit said in a letter to employees that the bank had operated at a profit for the first two months of this year and was on track, based on historical trends, to make $8.3 billion for the quarter.
Pandit said the bank has had its best performance since the third quarter of 2007, the last time it booked a quarterly profit.
Wow, it's a miracle. Citigroup says they made $8.3 billion for the quarter. What a turnaround. Amazing. Astounding. I am in absolute awe of the business acumen here...
The government will own up to 36 percent of Citigroup's common shares under the terms of the deal announced yesterday, which is designed to reassure investors that the troubled New York bank can survive the deepening recession.
The deal does not involve new funding from taxpayers. The Treasury Department already has invested $45 billion in Citigroup. The company may repay up to $25 billion with common shares rather than cash. The government will surrender billions of dollars in dividend payments on its original investment, but taxpayers will benefit directly if the company's share price recovers in the wake of the federal aid.
Huh. Who would of thunk it? Citigroup received $45 billion and the government surrenders "billions of dollars in dividend payments" and lo and behold Citigroup has billions of dollars in "profit." Wow, what a surprise! That's it everybody ought to jump back into the market.
Did I mention the strings that were attached to $45 billion of taxpayer money?
A key condition is that Citigroup must also convince investors to accept its common shares. The company must place $27.5 billion in shares with private investors in order to place the maximum of $25 billion with the government. If the company succeeds in full, its current shareholders will be left with roughly a 26 percent stake.
Mission accomplished! And, Wall Street emerges from its stupor. Please, if you bought into this yesterday, I've got some shares of Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, MCI Worldcom and Enron I'd like to offer you at an amazing price.
For those of you, who think I'm just trying to rain on the parade. Let's take a trip down memory lane. Don't worry, we don't have to go too far. Just need to look at reports from three years ago:
Citigroup Inc., the nation’s largest financial institution, on Monday reported its first-quarter profit rose 4 percent, beating Wall Street projections due to record investment banking returns.
Ah, but that's not the best part. For that, we have to read further into the story:
Citigroup joined other Wall Street institutions in reporting its strongest quarter of merger and acquisition activity since 2000, helping to offset the impact of rising interest rates on other businesses.
“We are seeing the benefits from our investment spending, which helped generate record revenues in our international businesses and record revenues globally in our corporate and investment banking business,” said Chief Executive Charles Prince in a statement. “Strength in these franchises more than offset weaker results in our U.S. consumer business.”
Corporate and investment banking profit increased 21 percent to $7.28 billion from $6.04 billion a year earlier. Citigroup has been one of Wall Street’s leaders in global debt and equity underwriting during the quarter, and has consistently led in announced global merger and acquisition deals.
Citigroup’s results come one month after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. announced blockbuster earnings for the quarter that ended in February, buoyed by record revenue from equity sales and trading.
Imagine that. Those great results came one month after similar blockbuster earnings were announced by Lehman Brothers. Well, I guess we can expect to see history repeat itself, and in the next few weeks Lehman Brothers will be announcing blockbuster earnings.
Oh wait, that's right. Lehman Brothers went bankrupt. Don't worry though. We'll still get a chance to see history repeat itself.
I've got to admit that I'm pretty amused by what is going with the White House, and their outspoken critics in the media. I don't think I've ever seen it happen before, and my gut reaction is that it seems to be beneath the office of the President.
It appears that the White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs has decided that the best way to deal with critics in the entertainment news industry is to launch ad hominem attacks. From a PR standpoint, I'm not really sure this is an altogether smart strategic tactic. There's an old adage advising against picking fights with those who buy "ink by the barrel." Yet, that is precisely what is going on over the last few weeks.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs jumped at the chance Friday to rebuke a CNBC reporter whose attack on President Barack Obama’s anti-foreclosure plan caught fire on the Internet.
Gibbs took on CNBC’s Rick Santelli in unusually personal terms after being asked a question about Santelli’s bracing critique during a regular White House briefing.
I’ve watched Mr. Santelli on cable the past 24 hours or so. I’m not entirely sure where Mr. Santelli lives or in what house he lives but the American people are struggling every day to meet their mortgages, stay in their jobs, pay their bills, send their kids to school,” Gibbs said.
CBS News: Gibbs, pictured below, said Limbaugh "doubled down on what he said in January in wishing and hoping for economic failure in this country" during a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference this weekend.
The speech, Gibbs told reporters, appeared to be "quite popular at the room in which he spoke."
Limbaugh's dead right. I am a fight-not-flight guy, so I was on my hackles when I heard White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs' answer to a question about my pointed criticism of the president on multiple venues, including the Today Show.
"I'm not entirely sure what he's pointing to to make some of the statements," Gibbs said about my point that President Obama's budget may be one of the great wealth destroyers of all time. "And you can go back and look at any number of statements he's made in the past about the economy and wonder where some of the backup for those are, too."
This is all a bit ridiculous. What makes this even sillier is the fact that the people he is attacking are entertainers. Sure, they're programs are on news stations, but let's be real. They are in the entertainment industry. The news of the day, especially that which is viewed on these channels, is covered in about 20 minutes. The rest of the time is well meant to kept you entertained long enough to hear the commercials. Period, that's it.
The White House Press Secretary is going after these folks is just absurd. It would be right up their with attacking Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. Just doesn't make any sense.
I was born a New Yorker and have lived in more places than I can count on one hand. My wanderings included a total of more than two years in Ecuador and nine years in California. The latter being significant as that is where I met the love of my life. Of course, she determined that our progeny would be the tenth generation of her family to be raised in New Mexico. So, this is where my roots will grow long.
