FAIR Blog » Jake Tapper http://www.fair.org/blog The national media watch group Thu, 09 Feb 2012 21:42:42 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.2 en hourly 1 GE Avoids Reporting on GE Avoiding Taxes http://www.fair.org/blog/2011/03/28/ge-avoids-reporting-on-ge-avoiding-taxes/ http://www.fair.org/blog/2011/03/28/ge-avoids-reporting-on-ge-avoiding-taxes/#comments Mon, 28 Mar 2011 20:10:33 +0000 Peter Hart http://www.fair.org/blog/?p=17769 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.

]]> http://www.fair.org/blog/2011/03/28/ge-avoids-reporting-on-ge-avoiding-taxes/feed/ 22 Factchecking: At NBC, That's a Job for the Viewer http://www.fair.org/blog/2010/04/13/factchecking-at-nbc-thats-a-job-for-the-viewer/ http://www.fair.org/blog/2010/04/13/factchecking-at-nbc-thats-a-job-for-the-viewer/#comments Tue, 13 Apr 2010 19:27:31 +0000 Peter Hart http://www.fair.org/blog/?p=14227 In his stint as interim host of ABC's This Week, Jake Tapper has arranged for the fact-checkers at Politifact to review what the guests say on the ABC Sunday morning show. An idea worth applauding, it came to Tapper via NYU's Jay Rosen. The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz asked NBC Meet the Press anchor David Gregory if he'd consider a similar arrangement for his show:

An "interesting idea," Gregory allows, but not one the NBC show will be emulating. "People can factcheck Meet the Press every week on their own terms."

]]> http://www.fair.org/blog/2010/04/13/factchecking-at-nbc-thats-a-job-for-the-viewer/feed/ 23 Media Echo U.S. Gov't Attacks on Chavez http://www.fair.org/blog/2009/04/24/media-echo-us-govt-attacks-on-chavez/ http://www.fair.org/blog/2009/04/24/media-echo-us-govt-attacks-on-chavez/#comments Fri, 24 Apr 2009 17:44:31 +0000 Isabel Macdonald http://www.fair.org/blog/?p=8145 Images of the U.S. media's longtime foe, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, with Obama at last weekend's Summit of the Americas in Trinidad prompted some corporate reporters to take the unusual step of questioning the political motivations behind an official photo-op.  On ABC's World News, Jake Tapper referred to Chavez's gift of The Open Veins of Latin America to Obama as a "stunt" (video available here).

George Stephanopoulos questioned whether Chavez was not just posing with Obama in order to take advantage of Obama's popularity. "You have to wonder who would win a popular vote between Obama and Chavez in Venezuela these days," Stephanopoulos stated in an early Sunday morning ABC News broadcast.

Yet, as even Miami Herald columnist Andres Oppenheimer--a Chavez critic--acknowledges in his latest column, "there are no recent polls on Obama's popularity in Venezuela." So just where does Stephanopoulos get the idea that Obama polls so favorably in Venezuela? Why, likely from Obama's own adviser on Latin America!

In an interview with Tapper broadcast on ABC, Jeffrey Davidow--a senior adviser to Obama on Latin American affairs and director of the Summit of the Americas, who is also president of the Institute of the Americas think tank, stated that Chavez

rushed photos of his handshake with president Obama on to his government's website, along with his express desire to be friends. That was for a reason.

There's a sizable population in Venezueala, probably the very, very vast majority of Venezuela Venezuelans, who have a more favorable attitude to president Obama than to him.

Tapper: You're saying president Obama is more popular in Venezuela than Chavez is?

Davidow: Yeah.

What better authority on what "probably the very, very vast majority of Venezuela Venezuelans" want than a White House senior advisor?

]]> http://www.fair.org/blog/2009/04/24/media-echo-us-govt-attacks-on-chavez/feed/ 0