A Test of Media Objectivity

Any time anyone accuses the mainstream media of left-wing bias, the cacophony of protest from the accused is deafening. Oh No! they protest. We're just objective reporters of the facts! By a curious confluence of events, entailing the bankruptcy of two major corporations, the mainstream media now has the opportunity to prove their objectivity. The corporations in question are Enron and Global Crossing.

The outlines of the Enron case are well known to everyone by now — huge campaign contributions primarily to prominent republicans, the sudden bankruptcy of the corporation, major cashing-out of stock holdings by corporate executives before the fall, laid-off employees and impoverished shareholders.

Now comes the case of Global Crossing — but in this case there were huge campaign contributions primarily to prominent democrats, the sudden bankruptcy of the corporation, major cashing-out of stock holdings by major shareholders and executives before the fall, laid-off employees and impoverished shareholders.

Essentially the same set of facts, with the significant difference being that Enron benefited primarily republicans, while Global Crossing benefited primarily democrats.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the total amount of money Global Crossing contributed to politicians exceeded even the amounts contributed by Enron, and last year 64% of that money went to democrats. There is one other difference — according to a report in the Washington Times, the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Terry McAuliffe, cashed out $18 million of Global Crossing stock in the late 1990's, from an initial investment of $100,000 two years earlier. That's nearly double the rate of profit that Hillary Clinton garnered from trading cattle futures.

The media has been all over the Enron debacle. Multiple articles appear in every newspaper every day, multiple stories on every new broadcast on a daily basis. A dozen committees of Congress are investigating. We're waiting to see what the "unbiased" media and the democrats in Congress make of the Global Crossing case.

Jesse Jackson organized a bus trip for impoverished Enron employees to go to Washington and yell at members of Congress. Is there room on your bus for the impoverished employees of Global Crossing, Jesse? You can go yell at Terry McAuliffe, who can probably be found at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee. No doubt you know where that is.

The above article is the property (copyright) of Kim Weissman, and is reprinted with his permission.
Contact him prior to reproducing.