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To: OLDTRADER who wrote (170939)	9/20/2002 4:30:36 PM
From: TigerPaw	Respond to of 176387

small bit of exageration Actually it's a large exageration. It doesn't make it any more true to repeat it over and over. The largest media companies have very conservative ownership and editoral guidance. Look at the vast Murdock empire and the Moonie publications. The big Clear Channel networks as well as GE and Viacom all have extremely conservative guidance. "Here's a reality check for Bernard Goldberg: The mainstream media are no more liberal than the conglomerates that own them or the advertisers that pay their bills." fair.org "The conservative critique of the news media rests on two general propositions: (1) journalists' views are to the left of the public, and (2) journalists frame news content in a way that accentuates these left perspectives. Previous research has revealed persuasive evidence against the latter claim, but the validity of the former claim has often been taken for granted." ". . .journalists are actually more conservative than the general public." fair.org "For years, conservatives have painted a picture of the Washington press corps as a group of liberal crusaders bent on bashing corporations, bloating government and socializing health care. "This caricature is utterly deflated by a new survey of journalists." fair.org "The primary mission of the Media Research Center is to compile (mostly anecdotal and out of context) examples of alleged liberal media bias. A secondary mission is to deflect charges that Fox News Channel has a conservative bias." conwebwatch.tripod.com "The truth is, the media may have been dominated by liberals long ago, back in the days of Spiro Agnew. It is no longer. Conservatives own today's media. They just never admit it." cnn.com Read quick before all that is left is 404 errors. TP

To: OLDTRADER who wrote (170939)	9/21/2002 8:02:34 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 176387

It's Gut Check Time For Corporate America By Arianna Huffington nationally syndicated columnist Filed September 19, 2002 So Jack Welch, the former head honcho of General Electric, has decided that the company's shareholders should no longer have to foot the bill for most of the pricey perks bestowed on him as part of his ultra-cushy retirement package. Welch's gravy train into the sunset includes an $80,000-a-month Central Park apartment (I'm guessing at that price that it probably has a park view), lifetime use of a company jet, maid service at his multiple homes, membership at an array of country clubs, flowers, limos, phones, computers, furniture, and prime tickets to Wimbledon, the opera, the U.S. Open, and every New York Knicks home game. Welch says he came to this decision not because such lavish excess on the company's dime is wrong -- far from it -- but because, as he put it in a column in the Wall Street Journal, "perception matters." In other words, he hasn't had a change of heart, just a change of PR strategy. Was it just a coincidence that Welch's high profile column appeared on the same day that the Securities and Exchange Commission announced it had opened an informal investigation into Welch's compensation package? To hear Welch tell it, not only doesn't he think there is anything "improper" about having shareholders pick up the tab for his corporate raja lifestyle while keeping them in the dark about the details of his deal, he actually believes he was doing them a favor. "I agreed," he wrote, "to take the post-retirement benefits that are now being questioned instead of cash compensation -- cash compensation that would have been much more expensive for the company." Who knew that a $9 million-a-year pension, charge accounts at New York's finest restaurants, and all the roses you can deliver to your new lady love could be such a bargain for GE shareholders? The only thing Welch sees as "plain wrong" is the bad press he and his former employer are getting over the revelations. He seems to think that the public's outrage is just a phase we're all going through. A post-Enron temper tantrum that needs to be placated with some concessions and condescending pats on the head. The light bulb clearly hasn't clicked on over his noggin. Maybe he should put in a call to his old company to send one over. Better yet, he should order up a case of bulbs because Welch is far from the only corporate chieftain who can't seem to get his mind around the time-honored concepts of right and wrong. And I'm not just talking about guys who have merely been the object of public scorn. No, even when indictments, charges and massive fines have been dished out, these people seem unable to admit they've done anything wrong. The latest example of this is former Sunbeam CEO "Chainsaw" Al Dunlap, who earlier this month agreed to pay a $500,000 SEC penalty for cooking the company books and accepted a lifetime ban from ever holding another top post at a public company. What he didn't do is admit any wrongdoing. His lawyer called the admission-free deal "a welcome outcome." Disgraced $20 million-a-year telecom analyst Jack Grubman was similarly unrepentant, claiming in his letter of resignation this summer that although he shamelessly continued to tout pet stocks like WorldCom and Global Crossing, even as they plummeted into bankruptcy, he was "nevertheless proud of the work" he and his Salomon Smith Barney team had done. Imagine how giddy he would have been if he had left investors with the shirts on their backs. And corporate giants AOL, Merrill Lynch, and Xerox also refused to admit to any bad behavior even though, since 2000, they all have had to pay hefty fines for deceiving the public. I guess Merrill forked over that $100 million out of sympathy for the taxpayers of New York and not because its analysts had regularly dished out tainted advice to investors. The question is when are these folks going to start fessing up to their wrongdoing? That's the only right way to right a wrong. Some have speculated that the Welch controversy will lead to fewer perks for future execs -- but don't hold your breath. Corporate lawyers have made a loophole-riddled mockery of SEC disclosure rules -- so much so that we never would have learned the distasteful details of Welch's sweetheart deal if he hadn't found himself on the receiving end of his spurned wife's wrath. And it doesn't help that government regulations allow companies to manipulate and hide the true cost of executive benefits. For instance, while a CEO's romantic weekend getaway to Europe on the corporate jet might have an actual price tag of $15,000, his company is allowed to record the trip as a $500 expense. Try getting that kind of markdown on Priceline.com. Welch, who seems to have a proclivity for bellying up to a midsection metaphor, having titled his self-aggrandizing autobiography "Jack: Straight From the Gut," says that his decision to downsize his 24-karat golden parachute while continuing to defend its fairness and propriety "sure feels right in my gut." If that's truly the case, he needs to schedule an emergency appointment with a gastro-intestinal specialist. The man from GE needs to have his GI examined. As do his fellow overpaid brethren. It's gut-check time for all of corporate America. ariannaonline.com

To: OLDTRADER who wrote (170939)	9/21/2002 8:10:37 AM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 176387

Atonement in the Boardroom Editorial / Op-Ed The New York Times September 21, 2002 Jack Welch's gut told him it was time to give up his lavish retirement perks, and investors can only hope that his decision is contagious. Mr. Welch insisted there was nothing improper about his retirement deal in a Wall Street Journal op-ed article last Monday, but nevertheless announced he would start paying General Electric an estimated $2 million a year for the use of the company jet, Manhattan apartment and other perks that were part of a 1996 agreement to keep him on the job for another few years. September is turning out to be a moment of reckoning for extravagant executive compensation packages. William McDonough, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, recently attacked excessive C.E.O. pay as a moral failure. He noted that chief executives earn on average 400 times their average employee's income, up from 42 times in 1980. Stories of greed in the executive suite being taken to criminal extremes have also dominated the headlines. Dennis Kozlowski and other former Tyco officers have been indicted by the Manhattan district attorney, Robert Morgenthau, accused of systematically looting company coffers. The Tyco case, at least for the moment, seems to set the gold standard for misconduct by a management team intent on seeing just how far it can go, absent any meaningful corporate governance. The result was a surreal world of $6,000 shower curtains, $15,000 poodle-shaped umbrella holders and $2 million Sardinian birthday parties for the boss's second wife. This week the Conference Board, a business-backed research group, issued a report acknowledging that executive compensation has become excessive in many instances, bearing no relationship to a company's long-term performance. The group calls on companies to treat stock options as expenses affecting their bottom line, and to strengthen the independence of compensation committees. The Securities and Exchange Commission has begun an informal inquiry into Mr. Welch's package, and whether it was properly disclosed by the company. The S.E.C. will have to tighten comparatively lax disclosure rules involving the goodies offered by companies to their former officers, and demand more realistic rules for determining the cost to shareholders. Also, the commission wants to require mutual funds to report how they vote their shares on compensation and other corporate governance matters. This is an important step toward increased shareholder vigilance. Congress, for its part, must adjust a number of tax rules that encourage abuses. It is inexcusable that a retired C.E.O. flying on the company jet for personal business can claim for income-tax purposes that the free trip is worth about the amount of the lowest coach fare available on the same route. The trip may actually cost the company tens of thousands of dollars. Investors were often willing to overlook the excesses of management teams during the recent bull market, because the dollar amounts seemed paltry compared with a company's overall revenues, and because share prices were rising. Now that the boom is over, the idea that imperial C.E.O.'s can help themselves to corporate assets looks more like the reckless conduct it always was. nytimes.com