The Washington Post's Paul Farhi has a piece today (3/30/11) about NBC's non-coverage of the revelation that part-owner General Electric is making piles of money--and paying no federal taxes. I'm quoted in it.

Farhi breaks it down, and gets an NBC response:

It's the kind of accountability journalism that makes readers raise an eyebrow, if it doesn't raise their blood pressure first. General Electric Co., reported the New York Times last week, earned $14.2 billion in worldwide profits last year, including $5.1 billion in the United States--and paid exactly zero dollars in federal taxes.

The front-page story drew widespread commentary in newspapers and on many websites. ABC News and Fox News, among others, were all over it.

But the story was conspicuously absent from the reportage of one news organization: NBC.

During its Friday broadcast, NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams had no time to mention that America's largest corporation had essentially avoided paying federal taxes in 2010. Or its Saturday, Sunday or Monday broadcasts, either.

Did NBC's silence have anything to do with the fact that one of its parent companies is General Electric?

NBC News representatives say that it didn't. "This was a straightforward editorial decision, the kind we make daily around here," said Lauren Kapp, spokeswoman for NBC News. Kapp declined to discuss how NBC decides what's news or, in this case, what isn’t.

NBC used to do a series called "The Fleecing of America," which focused on corporate tax cheats and wasteful spending.  GE's tax trickery would have been an ideal issue to spotlight--if it wasn't perpetrated by GE, that is.

You may have heard about the New York Times report (3/25/11) explaining that General Electric made $14 billion in worldwide profits in 2010--and paid the federal government exactly nothing in taxes. The Times explained this is "based on an aggressive strategy that mixes fierce lobbying for tax breaks and innovative accounting that enables it to concentrate its profits offshore."

Despite the Comcast purchase, GE is still a part owner of NBC and MSNBC--the latter conventionally thought to be a liberal-leaning outlet. So did they say much about a giant corporation keeping profits offshore in order to avoid paying taxes? Not really; Paul Abrams pointed out at the Huffington Post (3/26/11), host Lawrence O'Donnell deserves credit for going after the company.

What about NBC? Checking Nexis doesn't turn up much, though I did come across this conversation between Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb on the Today show, which is apparently about various Prince William-Kate Middleton royal wedding memorabilia (3/24/11):

KOTB: That's the top of the cake, so if you cut it....

GIFFORD: Oh my gosh. They've never looked so unattractive. That's terrible.

KOTB: Well, anyway, the baker, Michelle Wibowo, she did it, spent eight hours on it.

GIFFORD: Oh, sorry, baker.

KOTB: All right.

GIFFORD: Sorry. It's lovely. Gosh.

KOTB: And if you need a place to put your cake, just--how about the Will and Kate refrigerator by GE? Who's part owner of this company.

GIFFORD: Yes.

KOTB: Yes.

For the record, there really is a GE refrigerator honoring Will and Kate.

Outside the GE media world, ABC's Jake Tapper turned in a good report on ABC World News.

UPDATE:  Over at ThinkProgress Zaid Jilani notes that one outlet has expressed a keen interest in GE's tax avoidance: the Fox News Channel.

--On Democracy Now! (11/8/10):

While Keith Olbermann's donations became front-page news, little attention has been paid to the massive amount of political spending by MSNBC's parent company General Electric, one of the nation's largest military contractors. Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting reports GE made over $2 million in political contributions in the 2010 election cycle. The top recipient was Republican Senate candidate Rob Portman from Ohio. The company has also spent $32 million on lobbying this year and contributed over $1 million to campaign against a California ballot initiative aimed at eliminating tax loopholes for major corporations.

--George Curry, writing in the Philadelphia Inquirer (11/3/10)  about the state of public broadcasting and NPR's decision to fire Juan Williams:

When NPR fired Williams, conservatives--who have campaigned for years to eliminate the network's federal subsidies--charged that it was violating Williams' First Amendment rights. Williams agreed in a column on Fox's website, saying: "To say the least, this is a chilling assault on free speech."

No it isn't. Juan Williams, a frequent critic of federal entitlements, is not entitled to a job at NPR or anywhere else. And NPR has done nothing to curtail his freedom of speech. Its executives have decided they no longer want his services, as is their right. It's a question of fee speech, not free speech.

I worked for a year as a commentator for a show Ed Gordon hosted on NPR. When my contract was not renewed, I did not assert that NPR had violated my First Amendment rights. There is nothing unconstitutional about not renewing a contract.

More important than NPR's firing Juan Williams for the wrong reason is its failure to fulfill its original mission. The watchdog group Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting noted that the network "has consistently shown a tilt toward elite guests and sources--government officials, corporate representatives and journalists from commercial media."

FAIR observed, "If the pressure from the right is to be effectively countered, it's not enough to say, 'Don't Defund NPR.' What is needed is a call for public broadcasting to fulfill its mission" with "independent, provocative programming that features voices ignored or marginalized by the commercial media."

By definition, Juan Williams wouldn't fit that description.