Thursday, May 21, 2009

General Electric: Corporate Treachery


General Electric, washers, dryers, kitchen appliances, and the handy old electric iron, right? That’s the GE most of us know, but it’s only the tip of the iceberg of one of the largest, most powerful corporations in the world. From specialized medical equipment to jet engines, General Electric is a key player.

Here’s an insightful column about the complex mess what was once America’s model corporation has become under its current leadership. The fortunes of General Electric have fallen from one of the most desirable stocks to have in one’s portfolio to little more than junk today. Former CEO, Jack Welsh, was the symbol of corporate responsibility. While current head, Jeffrey Immelt, is the ultimate corporate weasel. What are supposed to be news operations, NBC News, CNBC, and MSNBC have been subverted into extensions of their corporate parent’s advertising and promotions operations.

Please read this for insight: http://businessandmedia.org/articles/2009/20090520141935.aspx

That Immelt is an advocate of the insidious “cap and trade” energy tax will be hailed as the ultimate of corporate responsibility, a visionary who sees the long term benefit of a program so costly in the short run.

Baloney!!! General Electric, who does a monstrous amount of business with the Federal Government, stands to make billions in new technologies they already have a leg up on. Further, Immelt’s support of Federalized medical care is also a huge benefit to GE. One component, that we strongly support, electronic patient records IF PROPER SAFEGUARDS ARE TAKEN, requires an infrastructure so huge few companies can bid on such a product. General Electric is working to get the inside track on that business which would amount to huge income for the company.

It is very disturbing that a company that wields so much power can use its presence in the news media through its subsidiary NBC-Universal to provide what would appear to be impartial news stories that provide the rationale for huge taxpayer investments in General Electric products. Whether it’s examining the health care system in such a way to favor solutions favorable to General Electric or coloring its reportage on the environment to similar ends, viewers watching NBC, CNBC, and MSNBC could be duped into reaching false conclusions crafted by a huge corporate propaganda machine.

While the leftwing bias of these NBC news outlets is bad enough, for them to be pseudo news for corporate advantage is far more costly.

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