GE, MSNBC & FOX

[Dr. Shane]

Drama at GE shareholders meeting

The hostility between Fox News Channel and MSNBC reached a fever pitch Wednesday when a Fox producer infiltrated the GE shareholders meeting.

Just before GE re-elected board members, company brass were hit with questions from shareholders critical of an alleged leftward political slant at MSNBC.

But one of those questions came from Jesse Watters, a producer on "The O'Reilly Factor" whose criticisms were cut short when his microphone was cut off, according to several attendees. Watters apparently did not publicly identify himself as a Fox employee...

"The crowd was very upset with MSNBC because of its leftward tilt," one attendee said. "Some former employees said they were embarrassed by it."

...Immelt told the assembled he takes a hands-off approach to what is reported on the company's news networks, which prompted a shareholder to criticize him for not managing NBC Uni more effectively...

"Any time MSNBC was mentioned, there was a rumbling in the crowd of 400 people," he added. Borelli also asked a question pertaining to GE's stock performance since Immelt took the helm...

As for Fox News producer Watters, he had his say and left the gathering to do stand-up interviews with other attendees outside the proceeding. He was, Sheffer said, asked not to videotape during the meeting, which is not, per stated corporate policy, allowed by any shareholders during the event. (Watters, who is a shareholder, had attended last year as well and had tried then too to record the proceedings.)

...The meeting, which lasted more than two hours, was described by all four of the attendees THR talked to subsequently as variously rancorous or critical. Other than questions about MSNBC, shareholders brought up questions about executive pay and cuts to the company's dividend...

Czajkowski is a retired major with the U.S. Army and was asking Immelt to explain why GE was doing business with Iran while that country was supplying weapons to Iraqis who were killing American soldiers.

"Immelt never answered my question, A, and B, shut my microphone off," he said.

Czajkowski said about 15 shareholders voiced criticism of NBC, MSNBC or CNBC, and they usually received applause. When Immelt defended the networks, he was booed...

"The biggest thing there was the put-down of NBC and MSNBC as slanted news media," he said. "Of the people that got to make a remark, almost all of them mentioned it."

Roeser, a retired New York state trooper, also said that Immelt's defense of MSNBC was met with "lots of boos," some of which can be heard on the Borelli tape.

Roeser said he was unaware that Fox News or producer Watters was at the meeting until he saw "The O'Reilly Factor" on Thursday, which led with a segment about the GE shareholder meeting as well as accusations that GE is using its media organization to prop up governmental policies it will profit from...

The CEO tried to assure shareholders that GE has positioned itself for an economic recovery, with a new focus on products that could capture some of what GE estimates is $2 trillion worth of government stimulus spending worldwide. That includes windmills and other clean energy equipment and new health care technology.

Sherin was conciliatory when discussing GE's decision to cut its dividend by 67% in March, the first reduction in the quarterly payment since 1938. GE has said the move was needed to save $9 billion per year in cash.

"We feel terrible about it, but it was the right thing to do," Sherin said.

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[Dr. Shane]

What I see is that MSNBC caters to a liberal audience and FOX caters to a conservative audience. I think the big difference is that FOX is getting good ratings while MSNBC is getting poor ratings. Shareholders (like me) want to see the TV networks under GE get better ratings and be more profitable. Many of us are very upset that GE cut its dividend by 2/3rds last month.

The GE Board of Directors needs to clean house and get new leadership at GE and at NBC. The value os their stock has fallen dramatically and now their dividends have taken a nose dive too.