CNN‘s newest show–OutFront, featuring Erin Burnett–did a “factcheck” of the protest in Lower Manhattan that was long on attitude and short on accuracy. If you’d like the network to take another look, see FAIR’s latest Action Alert.
Please leave copies of your messages to CNN, or responses to the alert, in the comment thread below.
Erin Burnett also said the taxpayers came out ahead on TARP. But isn’t it the government who actually came out ahead on the deal? The real question might be, what is the government going to spend that money on? Tax cuts for the rich? War? Closing the deficit? Some future even bigger bailout of banks? Probably. That’s what the mindset of people like Burnett calls for. Ordinary Americans, meanwhile, are still seeing their jobs disappear, their schools, transit, healthcare, post offices getting cut. So how did taxpayers come out ahead?
Dear Ms. Burnett,
By now, you probably have received plenty of emails that may or may not have taken the wool off your eyes about the Wall St demonstration. I know you don’t live in a cave, so I can only conclude that you have surrounded yourself with corporate-speak, and have no idea how most Americans live today. I’m disappointed, especially because I love to see women rise to high professional positions. You’re photogenic, but really disappointing in the discernment department. I’m going to miss CNN at 10:30 pm, when I generally get ready to relax and watch some TV. Now I will tolerate the commercials rather than flip channels between MSNBC and CNN.
Erin Burnett’s factcheck of Occupy Wall Street needs factchecking.
She said that since bank bailouts made 10 billion for American taxpayers, the OccupyWallSt protesters can all go home now. But the Wall Street bailouts are about far more than TARP. As Bloomberg News recently reported (8/22/11), Federal Reserve lending programs to the banking industry topped $1.2 trillion. And the terms of the TARP loans were a gift to the banks. These government policies went a long way towards protecting the interests of Wall Street giants. Working people got very little, and the unemployment and foreclosure crises continue to wreak considerable damage on the economy. This is why people are protesting.
Burnett used to work for the same financial companies that profited from the bailouts–Goldman Sachs, Citigroup–and she is engaged to be married to a Citigroup executive (Business Insider, 9/30/11). Burnett’s journalistic career includes plenty of attempts to promote Wall Street interests, earning her praise from the likes of Rush Limbaugh (FAIR Blog, 10/3/11). She even tried to defend Wall Street giants from criticism over using TARP funds to pay giant bonuses (FAIR Blog, 2/3/09).
She should try getting someone smart on the show who does not share her aristocratic perspective.
My web comment to CNN:
Did anyone even try to google the protesters’ demands? They are at http://occupywallst.org/forum/proposed-list-of-demands-please-help-editadd-so-th/
Dear Ms. Burnett :
In answer to your question, “What do the demonstrators want?”, my list is at http://www.mjbarkl.com/run.htm .
Best wishes,
–Mike Barkley, Candidate for Congress new CA-10 District
OUTFRONT with Erin Burnett was anything but. Boring, boring, boring. This kind of shallow, one-sided reporting is already well-covered on FOX
What a disappointment Erin Burnett was “covering ” the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. She takes her pro-corporate views, asks one schmutz in the crowd whether they knew the bailouts had been paid back with interests and when this person claimed they didn’t know she creates the image that none of them have any idea what they’re there for as if it was about nothing else than just bailouts that were repaid.
This isn’t journalism. It is the typical shallow model that CNN and FOX are so good at when they want to present an image that serves their corporate owners.
Is it possible that Ms. Burnett never considered that some of what’s being protested here is the fact that Wall Street gets bailouts while Main street gets the shaft. Wall Street corporate profits are at all time highs while many of these college graduates are forced to move back home with mom and dad because corporate America is sitting on billions in ready cash rather than hiring some of these kids and their parents as well, who were laid off thanks to Wall Street unethical excesses.
And then to discuss this with only one other person who also happens to have a biased view as Ms. Burnett, John Avlon, a former speechwriter for Republican Rudolph Giuliani, hardly informs the public in any balanced manner. It’s obvious what audience she was targeting here. We also see that Ms. Burnett is clear on who butters her bread.
I always gave Ms. Burnett credit for being balanced in her views when she was on CNBC. I can see the center-right position that’s common at CNN is more to her liking. Geez. One more so-called “news” program that does nothing more than create commercial time for their advertisers. No wonder CNN is always last in audience polls.
“Former CNBC reporter Erin Burnett’s CNN show OutFront debuted Monday night (10/3/11) with a failed attempt to factcheck the “Occupy Wall Street” protests. The show kicked off with Burnett explaining that she went to Wall Street today to see those protests for myself. I saw dancing, bongo drums, even a clown…. I asked several protesters what it was that they wanted. Now, they did not know…. They did know what they don’t want. Burnett added that “it seems like people want a messiah leader, just like they did when they anointed Barack Obama.””
so are you saying people with teabags hanging from their hats know what they want? of course, not everyone will have an intelligent answer when you’re in a big crowd. but the bailout of the banks was a bailout for wall street and now they have enough money again to defeat any regulations that would avoid having to bail them out again. they got a deal that the rest of the country did not get. and don’t tell me about all the shareholders with 401(k)s. their investments are minuscule compared to the top 1 percenters.
we don’t need a messiah. we’re not looking for a messiah. we need some fairness. and wall street needs some regulating.
and barack obama was not anointed, he was elected. maybe you meant to say appointed and were referring to gw bush.
Michael Lewis explained it much better than i can. check out his interview on charlie rose 10/3/11 or his book “Boomerang: travels in the new third world”. and please try to factcheck better in the future or stay away from things you don’t understand.
Has anyone stopped to ask where the destitute banks got the money so very quickly to repay some of the loan money? Not all of it is repaid nor will ever repaid. IT goes beyond TARP. Ask yourself that question. Where did they get the money? From the US taxpayers who floated below cost bonds/securities that the banks bought. Does anyone else know where the banks got their repayment money so quickly?
Comment about Erin Burnett piece
In your piece about OccupyWallStreet, you chose not to disclose your several connections with Wall Street parties involved. Also, you need to check your facts, particularly your claim that US citizens have profited by the TARP bailout. Consulting an economist would be a start. Had you read more background information, you would have found that Citigroup, for instance, has only paid back one-sixth of its loan. Many Corps are in line to have major portions forgiven. Finally, you chose to ignore the overall sentiment behind the protest, which is that every segment of government are being unduly influenced by those with wealth and power, including: Supreme Court, Congress, and WH. This is being aided by Major media corporations, with programs like yours. Your glib, uninformed coverage of this legitimate exercise of the last refuge open to citizens, the right to speak out in public, makes the protesters point for them.
I think it is amazing that people are supposed to be satisfied that monies were re-paid by banks, after the charade of the financial crisis response. The main stream media needs to wake-up and pay attention to the reality that most people in this country face every day, or continue to be seen as disconnected from reality and completely irrelevant. People have seen no benefit from the re-payment of nonsensical and illogical loans to the big banks. Many people have lost jobs, homes, and ‘all hope’. We are seeing a political party that does not value education, science, intelligence, or morality given all sorts of media air time. But honest people (that are not funded by corrupt, evil pots of money) are ridiculed and discredited. We are not going to be discouraged by morons in the media. Shame on you.
Ms Burnett’s “fact check” of the Wall St protests leaned heavily on incorrect assertions concerning TARP money and centered on comically bigoted stereotyping of progressive protesters as flakes. It went on to lionize reactionary whack-jobs as traditionally reliable dissidents. Oh yeah, progressives have been way off on issues such as slavery, civil rights, the environment, alleged weapons of mass destruction and well, how long would you like me to continue?
Burnett made a topically tone deaf debut at a time when a real journalist would have at the very least been able to report which way the wind is blowing. The Wall Street protests will be remembered long after Ms Burnett’s egregious excuse for broadcast journalism finds its rightful place on the sizable ash heap of failed CNN programming.
Barry Crimmins
Cameron, NY
Comments to CNNs Outfront:
CNNs Outfront and Erin Burnett’s factcheck of Occupy Wall Street needs factchecking and just shows how far CNN has slipped into the doldrums of “not much going on here folks.” With partnering with the fringe corporate Tea Party Express, and now a Wall Street shill lauded by the right wing, they keep going downhill faster and faster into unimportance trying to get back their lost credibility and high ratings they once enjoyed as the only cable news network.
The name of the protesters is the message “Occupy Wall Street” says it all. The bailouts were about more than just making money for the govt. Taxpayers bailed out the casino mentality and the privileged risk taking few who blew up the economy of the world. 50 million people worldwide lost their jobs, $13 trillion dollars lost in investments, and a recession that has yet to recover, who pays them back? Unemployment is still high, foreclosures are still going on. The govt saved the corporate butt, but has done nothing for the ones most hurt by their shenanigans and their scams on Wall street by the banks, ratings agencies, the federal regulators who turned a blind eye, and politicians who changed the laws to facilitate the massive casino and ripoff scam, perpetrated by the Wall street rich.
And Wall street no longer makes good investments, they are again back to making bets and making money for its own sake not for society at large. Mayor Bloomberg mistakenly says the protesters are about going after those who make $50,000 and who are struggling, and he also is as wrong as Burnett about the protests, it is about those making all the dough in the range of millions, and who pay few taxes, and are completely self serving.
Outfront, another failed program on CNN, who will suck up to anyone these days.
Economist Dean Baker said it well and like this:
“We are also supposed to feel good that the vast majority of the TARP money was repaid. This is another effort to prey on the public’s ignorance. Had it not been for the bailout, most of the major center banks would have been wiped out. This would have destroyed the fortunes of their shareholders, many of their creditors, and their top executives. This would have been a massive redistribution to the rest of society–their loss is our gain.”
CNN and Outfront wrong on reporting the Occupy Wall street message.
The trillions the corporations are holding onto are in Wall street investments. If they spent $1 dollar every second, it would require 64,725 years to spend it all. That’s $84,600 dollars per day. The range of the average taxpayer of $39,000 to $52,000 and would, by spending $1 dollar every second, last 10.8 to 14.5 hours. That money could be used to help so many people.
Last year, as of March 31, 2010, based on Federal studies the income of the US was 54.6 trillion dollars, and divided between the entire population, each man, woman, child, and baby, would then have $$176,130 dollars…..EACH!! Everyone could live comfortably on that, don’t you think? And this nonsense about the division between the earners and the slackers is just that.
Occupy Wall street is about:
Populus iandudum defutatus est.
“The people have been getting screwed long enough.”
I no longer rely on CNN for any good reporting, it is like a rotten ham sandwich, good only in spots. Well, the spots are too few mention at CNN, they need to turn away from copying FOX and its high ratings and misinformation and go back to being the only credible news organization on cable again, but I think it is too late, they have sold their soul.
Erin Burnett’s factcheck of Occupy Wall Street needs factchecking.
Occupy Wall St. isn’t protesting the bail-out; they’re protesting the fraud that caused the need for a bail-out, and that MAIN ST. hasn’t gotten the help IT NEEDS, while Wall ST. CEO’s walked off with huge profits and bonuses.
They’re protesting that Republicans are stonewalling help for American job creation by refusing to pass a jobs bill or raise taxes on the rich (Wall St.) even a little, while at the same time proposing slashing our social safety net, education, and govt. jobs, and busting our unions.
Those same kids who dress up and beat drums, CAN’T FIND JOBS BECAUSE WALL ST. BUSTED OUR ECONOMY!!!!!!! Don’t think anyone is fooled about what’s motivating these protests all over the country.
There’s a long list of grievances for any reporter who really wants to know. Shame on CNN for this kind of shoddy reporting!
Erin Burnett obviously took little time or care to find out the truth behind the Occupy Wall St. protests. What else should I expect from a former Goldman Sachs employee whose company played a major role in ruining the American economy and can’t stand it now that people are calling them out on their financial terrorism. Once again CNN proves to me why I should never watch one more second of your channel dedicated to corporate propaganda.
Seems like Erin Burnett’s notion of “fact checking” is to offer up her own infantile pre-conceptions as fact. The protestors do have a coherent meme, spelled out in a well publicized and widely disseminated document. Here’s a link to a copy of it: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/10/02-1
Perhaps CNN should set up some sort of internet training to help prevent their technically (and emotionally) impaired talking heads from making fools of themselves.
btw, Ms. Burnett dissed the protestors as dressing like zombies, apparently not realizing that many of the protestors are virtually living on the street, which tends to muss ones clothes a little. The truth is that in her so called fact check segment she sort of looks like a zombie in an expensive dress. Seriously, CNN…
Dear CNN,
OutFront’s coverage on Occupy Wall Street was disappointing in its blatant bias and misinformation regarding these protests. This is not about TARP bailouts. People there are protesting broader economic injustice, where a small handful of people run the show for the rest of us, where corporations are legally people and thus are able to unjustly influence US politics. Whether or not TARP was repaid or “made money” is sort of irrelevant, hardly the main issue, as Erin said. And you said you think the protesters want a “messiah leader”? What protest are you covering exactly? Did anybody tell you this?
Having followed these events pretty closely, I find it shameful how off the mark your coverage was. Please stop being dismissive of citizen participation in democracy, there are many thoughful people down there who have offered trenchant, helpful analyses to make about our society, just have a look on Youtube. You are proving the protesters right that corporations like Time Warner have too much influence in society when people with legitimate concerns have their voices distorted such as they were last night on your program. Can you please get your facts straight about the protest, and about TARP? How about having an analyst on air who can offer a progressive explanation of why the protest is happening? Or is there a pre-conceived story you’d rather tell? Are you a journalism organization or a storytelling machine?
Thank you,
CNN,
Just one more reason to listen to Lawrence O’Donnell for facts on MSNBC.
CNN has lost its original calling.
Getting more like Fox News.
George Mcginnis
I was eager to see the new show last night, but was sorely disappointed. The flip way Erin talked about Occupy Wall Street was disgusting to me. I’m positive that I never saw anyone on CNN speak in such a dismissive way about the tea party last year. Shame on CNN for allowing this when the 99% of Americans who are suffering thanks to the actions of many of the 1%. The Occupy movement is spreading across the country and every media outlet better pray that it is successful in helping to change the direction of the country because I dread to see what the streets of America will look like if people don’t begin to pay attention to the 99%.
Erin, when Wall Street and the banks that got bailed out pay back the billions upon billions of dollars lost by the American people in the form of wages not paid to them due to job loses, and the monies spent on unemployment due to the meltdown caused by same Wall Street and bankers….a comment that the American people have made a profit on the bailout is premature.
Erin Burnett’s CNN show(10/3/11)was clearly a fact free opinion piece by a supporter of Wall Street aimed at discrediting the Occupy Wall Street movement. Not only did she not get her fact straight, she also did not offer an economist that would give a detailed and accurate accounting of the bail out of banks. It would seem that if someone has background of benefit from a subject of a report that the journalist would state their association in the interest of fairness. Not only did Burnett not do that she obfuscated the issues of the occupiers with this hit piece. This kind of reporting is the reason that major news outlets are trusted less and less. If you want your network to be a trusted reference for citizens, it would behoove you to have accurate (fact checked) reporting and the biases of reporters stated upfront.
I’m deeply dismayed, though frankly not surprised, at Erin Burnett’s â┚¬Ã…“OutFrontâ┚¬Ã‚ coverage of the Occupy Wall Street protest last night. The coverage reproduced all of the disingenuous and pro-Wall Street rhetoric at which corporate media outlets excel, while distorting the reality of both the protest and the status quo that it opposes. First, Burnett’s claim that â┚¬Ã…“nobody seems to knowâ┚¬Ã‚ what they’re protesting is demonstrably false. Although the protesters have not yet agreed upon a list of concrete demandsâ┚¬”Ânot a quick or easy task when you’re committed to operating democratically, unlike the big corporate and financial institutionsâ┚¬”Âthe GENERAL demands are clear: a more egalitarian and democratic society, one in which the power of corporations and banks is drastically reduced, where democratic forms (e.g., the legislative and judicial systems) actually function according to the popular will, and where people have control over the decisions that impact their lives. A plethora of more specific demands are in the air, however, and easily recognized if Burnett would take the time to listen: a stock-transfer tax, increased income and capital gains taxes on the rich, a reversal of “Citizens United” and other mechanisms allowing for corporate influence over politics, a moratorium on foreclosures, student debt forgiveness, increased funding for social programs, universal health care, a genuine federal jobs program to combat unemployment levels unseen since the Great Depression, passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, shifting money away from imperialist wars and the military budget, government investment in green energy, etc., etc. Given that none of these demands is new, and that the groups that organized the occupation have been promoting them for years, one can only assume that Burnett’s ignorance is deliberateâ┚¬”Âintended to portray the protesters as misguided rebels-without-a-cause who protest just for the sake of protesting. Such tropes are well-worn strategies for trying to discredit social protestâ┚¬”Âjust ask veterans of the Civil Rights Movement.
Perhaps Burnett’s background working for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup explains the tone of her coverage, or perhaps her selection of â┚¬Ã…“expertsâ┚¬Ã‚ does. Her guests were not Nobel laureate economists like Joseph Stiglitz or Paul Krugman (or a plethora of other well-established economists who support the protests), but rather former Republican speechwriter John Avlon. In an attempt to prove that the protesters are misinformed, Burnett and Avlon grossly distort the reality of the financial bail-outs, implying that the entire country benefited from them. As today’s FAIR media alert observes, the protesters’ point with regard to the bail-outs (which are only one of many issues being addressed by the protesters) is that â┚¬Ã…“banks benefited from generous bailouts that the vast majority of Americans would never enjoy. (As one popular chant puts it: â┚¬Ã‹Å“Banks got bailed out! We got sold out!’) And the fact that the loans were repaid does not mean that they were not a subsidy to the banking industry. How much would it have cost the banks to get the money they needed to survive from private sources? The difference between those terms and what the government actually charged was a gift to the bankersâ┚¬”Âone that will never be paid back.â┚¬Ã‚ There’s no space to go into more detail, but I recommend FAIR’s poignant critique of CNN’s coverage at https://fair.org/index.php?page=4408.
Dear Ms. Burnett: Your “coverage” of the Wall Street protests was a slap in the face of the years and years of progressive activism in this country, including the 1930s Labor movement that brought years of prosperity to this country post WWII. Moreover, it was highly inaccurate, portraying the protesters as “not knowing what they were protesting about.” Get your facts straight before you go on the air!!!
According to Senator Bernie Sanders, a federal audit revealed the Fed guaranteed loans of $16 trillion (yes, $16 TRILLION) to the financial industry here and abroad.
http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=9e2a4ea8-6e73-4be2-a753-62060dcbb3c3.
All this while average Americans were losing their homes in record numbers and getting little help if any. Where is the fairness there?
I left a fantastic letter, but didn’t copy it! Thank you ;o)
Erik
Erin Burnett’s Facebook page, I wrote:
Where is the dislike button? If I agreed with you, we both would be wrong. What do you feel your responsibility is to your viewers to present accurate, impartial, factual news? How pathetic news reporting is when a partisan person hosts a news show and uses her own beliefs to push her own agenda and perhaps, that of CNN. Even more pathetic is on the opening show, the reportage is incomplete, wrong, and partisan. Why are you not fact checking your stories? Not enough competent
people doing due diligence? You have a responsibility as a part of a news organization to present the facts, not slanting to your wishful facts.
Oh, Ted Turner, did you ever think your idea to present an informational outlet would sink so low?
I’m disappointed that CNN would let Erin Burnett present a one-sided report on the Occupy Wall Street protests (in Monday’s debut program). I don’t know if this is related to the fact that Burnett is a former Goldman Sachs employee, or that her finance works for Citicorp– but I hope you will ensure that she provides more balanced journalism in the future.
Burnett’s attempt to reduce the Wall Street protester’s grievances to the cost of the TARP bailout is just strange. Discontent with the stranglehold of money in politics, and with the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, is much more widespread. And when Burnett’s only “expert” guest is a Republican speechwriter, I wonder if her program can still be called journalism.
It’s not hard to find Wall St. protesters with vague ideas– for many young people, it’s their first involvement in a major protest. But it’s also not hard to find articulate, well-informed protesters– voices that Burnett actively sought to screen out, to create a negative impression.
Below is a report by the Murdoch-owned Wall St. Journal– hardly a paper sympathetic to the protesters– which provides one example of what an honest news report on the protests might look like. Burnett’s report Monday night is the kind of thing I expect on Fox News, not CNN.
___________________________
Protesters Drawing Labor Support
By ANDREW GROSSMAN and ALISON FOX
The Wall Street Journal
Oct. 4, 2011
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204612504576609420345476398.html
The anti-Wall Street protesters camped out in a Lower Manhattan park are beginning to attract backing from some of New York’s most powerful labor unions.
On Monday, health-care workers union 1199SEIU issued a statement of support for the protests and said it would help feed those camped out in the park, send nurses to train those providing first aid and set up a task force to figure out what else it could do. The union represents 200,000 health-care workers in New York and Long Island and 100,000 more elsewhere on the East Coast.
The health-care workers joined Transport Workers Union Local 100, which represents 38,000 Metropolitan Transportation Authority employees, and several smaller labor groups in supporting the nascent protests. While the unions are playing a background role, they potentially bring deep pockets, manpower and more mainstream credibility to what began as a rag-tag group of mostly young activists.
They could also bring complications: The protesters have prided themselves on a leaderless, communal structure; the unions are known for highly disciplined political organization.
“The premise of the protest, we’re in complete agreement with,” said TWU Local 100 President John Samuelsen. “It’s about fair share and it’s about the claim that everybody needs to share a bit of the burden of this terrible economy.”
The transport workers, 1199 and other labor groups plan to join the protesters for a Wednesday march from City Hall to Zuccotti Park, where the protesters have camped since Sept. 17.
Also Monday, lawyers for TWU Local 100 sought a temporary restraining order in federal court to prevent the police from commandeering buses operated by its members to ferry protesters who had been arrested.
Police took over at least three buses Saturday to transport some of the 700 people who were arrested after a march veered onto the roadway of the Brooklyn Bridge, according to the union and the MTA.
“Our bus operators are working-class people who are raising children in New York City and by and large they support the protest,” said Mr. Samuelsen, the TWU president. “They’re not going to press our members into service and thrust them onto the wrong side of this protest without a fight from our union.”
A judge declined to sign the order, but requested more information from both sides. A spokeswoman for the city’s Law Department said: “We believe that the NYPD’s actions were proper.”
It’s not yet clear whether the protests, which are starting to spread to other cities, will emerge as a political force on the left wing. Labor unions could help. So may the backing of the professionals who have begun to intermittently join the protest, seeing the demonstration and its disparate messages as an outlet for their own dissatisfaction with the country’s economic path.
Tom Dematteis, a 39-year-old Connecticut pizzeria owner, drove down from his Watertown home Monday morning.
He said it was his first time protesting and he didn’t plan to camp out; he’s a single father of three and needed to be home to take care of his children. But, Mr. Dematteis, a Navy veteran, said he believes the financial systemâ┚¬”Âespecially the Federal Reserveâ┚¬”Âdoesn’t work for average Americans.
“America has been silenced for too long,” he said. “This is becoming a melting pot for all issues. I don’t protest very often, this is big enough.”
Joining Mr. Dematteis on Monday was a Connecticut teacher named Jim who said he wouldn’t give his last name because he was skipping work to be there. He, too, didn’t plan to camp out because he had to be back at school on Tuesday.
But he said he has watched several family members lose their homes to foreclosure and felt a need to show up in person after following the protest movement in the media.
“These are real-life things that happen to people I know,” he said. “We have to do something. I think the whole country is feeling helpless right now. You don’t have to necessarily stay in the park to show your solidarity.”
Ms. Burnett: With all due respect, your “fact-check” of the Occupy Wall Street protests needs some serious fact-checking itself. While it is understandable that you would try to mislead your viewers about the nature of these protests given your close, personal ties to Wall Street, it does not justify your actions. Your viewers deserve the truth about these protests, not heavily biased and false propaganda. At the very least we deserve to hear from economists, analysts and policy experts who can set the record straight. With the debut of your new show, you have not gotten off to a very good start. Your viewers deserve and demand better.
Dear CNN:
Erin Burnett is a corporate banking Barbie. Do you really think we’d buy into her coverage of the Wall St protests as a former employee of Goldman Sachs and Citigroup? Her boyfriend Ken works for Citigroup… he was one of the zombies portrayed in the street theater (a staple of any protest) which silly Erin pretended not to understand. Way to go CNN, keep shilling for the establishment.
Erin burnett should be more sensitive and less arrogant beside being out touch. In less than 6 months she will be out. CNN just get a disaster in the making with her.
Before waxing maudlin about the fact – if it is one – that taxpayers got ten million dollars out of the TARP deals, that the banks repaid everything, think a bit about what the banks got that they could never have got elsewhere and at a price they could never have hoped to pay, had funds somehow materialised from elsewhere. The banks were in such bad shape because of irresponsible lending that they could not have hoped to borrow enough to get them out of the hole they had dug for themselves, and if perchance they had, the rate of interest would not have been the infinitesimal rate they paid the taxpayers for the loan. The difference between the interest they paid and what they would have had to pay is a very tangible, very easily calculable gift of millions, perhaps billions, but the greatest gift of all was that we, the People, under cover of TARP, a programme as of by miracle conceived by none but the banks themselves, and compliant Government lackeys, is that we trusted them to repay us. Who in the whole wide world, would have? We have but to watch the pseudocomic drama of the impending Greek defaults and the contorsions of the IMF and the “European group” go through, to know, no one would have taken that leap of faith. In exchange for those gifts, what did we, the People, get? Watching giant bonuses given out of our money to banks CEO’s and other top personnel? Why were they saved from default and bankruptcy but thousands of us, as mortgagors of our property, not only see its value go underwater but also see our property ripped away from us on the basis of fraudulent and usurious contracts. They, responsible for the fiscal crisis, rose out of the cesspool they had created and we, the taxpayers were left in it. We now have to view, defenseless, the Bank of America threaten to collect a $5 per month for every debit card it issued, as if it hadn’t fleeced enough already, while planning to take the jobs away from another 30,000 of its employees.. Other institutions will no doubt want to follow suit.
So, yes, factcheck all you want, Erin, but don’t hide under cover of supposedly balanced research what we, the People, have given and received in return. That is what you, from your sanctimonious CNN pulpit, should have made clear, had you chosen the truth instead of obfuscation.
Please FactCheck Burnett and your/her report on Occupy Wall Street. Making money on the payback of TARP is not the end all, explain all of this movement. So you found a person that did not know that occurred – big deal, many still in the USA do not know that, even after your show. I happen to be one that believes TARP was the right thing to do. Had it not been for the bailout, most of the major center banks would have been wiped out. This would have destroyed the fortunes of their shareholders, many of their creditors, and their top executives. This would have been a massive redistribution to the rest of society but thousands more jobs would have been lost as well, and our Global status would be even worse than it is today. Your TARP interview and answer is not the end of the Occupy conversation.
Did you even attempt to research and read the goals of Occupy? While they may not be simple, while they may not be able to be summed up in a few words for your report, they do exist. http://occupywallst.org/forum/first-official-release-from-occupy-wall-street/
http://occupywallst.org/forum/proposed-list-of-demands-please-help-editadd-so-th/
They are representing the 99% that is not going to sit back quietly while the top 1% in our country pay less than their fair share of taxes. They’ve seen what happened over the last decade and know that it has not been right or good for our country, our people. They do not want to see the same mistakes happen again and this time they are speaking out. Should anyone expect them to have all the right answers? I don’t think so. They know something is wrong and they are calling on our country to find a better a way to fix it.
The anger with Wall St and the Banking System is about more than TARP. It’s about millions of American’s losing 50-60% of their retirement savings while a golden few that gamble legally everyday on Wall St made their monies off of our losses. The top earners recovered nicely with incomes and profits rising at historical rates, while middle America lost their security, and has NOT recovered. Trading “things” that don’t exist, that are not real but rather just a legal gambling game,is wrong.
It’s about the Banking System making bad risk decisions in not only providing mortgages but with the crazy game of bundling mortgages into packages with resale after resale. It’s about allowing mergers and acquisitions that have created the mega banks who no longer care about the people in their communities. We should be returning to the Banking System in “It’s a Wonderful Life” but instead we watch B of A DOUBLE their revenues on Debit Card swipe fees this week – 84% profit wasn’t enough, 71% profit wasn’t enough, no they had to double their profits and then blame it on the governmental regs. Ridiculous.
It’s about 6 Banks controlling 60% of our Country’s assets. It’s about the top 400 earners paying a lower % in taxes than many middle class American’s. It’s about large Corporations not paying taxes and hiding income overseas – legally. It’s about large Corporations being S Corps and not paying corporate tax rates but rather individual pass thru rates the same as small business S Corps. It’s about etc etc etc Enough is Enough.
I will not be watching your show and CNN just took huge step down in my appreciation for factual, complete, expert news reporting. This movement towards opinion shows with no factual responsibility is not one that I accept.
AN OPEN LETTER TO ERIN BURNETT OF “OUTFRONT” FROM CNN:
â┚¬Ã…“America has the wealth to end the despair and deprivation. To reclaim this nation, we have to start by making Wall Street pay to undo the damage that has caused immeasurable suffering while the high rollers on Wall Street, who created this crisis, are rewarded with bailouts, bonuses, tax cuts, and regulatory rollbacks”, NNU (National Nurses United) Executive Director RoseAnn DeMoro.
It is quite debatable just how much society as a whole benefited from bailing out the banks. Your claims that taxpayers made money on the bailout (at 8.5%, on the TARP) much of the returns are based on projections which are not REAL (read TARP Bailout Payback: “Drop in the Bucket”). But this and even if all the money is re-payed cannot dismiss that the damage still has been done: 1. housing market turmoil, 2. wild speculation on commodities, including energy which caused the financial and basic security of many millions to be turned upside down; 3. arrogant response by the very people who caused the economic meltdown: the banks and their representatives not only resisted re-regulation they actively worked to further erode regulations already weak and on the books while rewarding themselves(!!) with record bonuses and feasting with record profits AFTER the bailouts–seen those banksters toasting themselves with champagne while mocking–as YOU do–the young occupywallstreet protesters who are leading the resistance that is resonating with millions of people? This is NO faux “grass roots” funded by the Koch Brothers. Finally, these bailouts weaken the value of the people’s productivity by keeping on life support unproductive mega-enterprises so that they can continue their destructive agendas and keep the corruption money flowing and create the possibility if not the certainty of another crisis tomorrow.
Now let’s be clear: TARP program is not the BIG issue for the protesters but as the youth (mostly) in this movement have articulated are the gaping inequality between the 1% and the rest of the population and having a real voice–democracy–in other words, we are being taxed and at an effectively higher rate than corporations (some of which have payed NO taxes) and that top 1% of very wealthy people WITHOUT REPRESENTATION! Another point is that banks received special consideration that your taxpayer never would and in fact these “little” people continue to experience high unemployment and foreclosures. This is not helping the economy, is it?
Another point: But for the bailouts most of these “too big to fail” banks would have done so bring down with them the fortunes of investors, a good many creditors and CEO’s. But their loss would have been OUR gain as this wealth would have been redistributed to the rest of us. But it does not end here. These bailouts include more than TARP such as the $1.2 TRILLION dollar loans from the Federal Reserve lending program. So, you see, the bailouts were mostly to protect Wall Street and ordinary people, your taxpayers, got very little comparatively. The protestors know the large corporations are job EXPORTERS and see a bleak future for themselves and saddled with incredible debt, a shrinking job market and a world whose eco-systems are in very real danger of collapse which will mean our own survival hangs in the balance.
Finally, these loans were still a subsidy to the financial sector some of whom you worked for and which have profited by the bailouts–Goldman Sachs, Citigroup–because if banks had to go to PRIVATE sources for loans how much more would it have cost them.
In conclusion, CNN really should invite an economist and policy expert such as Joseph Stiglitz who can set the record straight.
I had never heard of Erin Prior to seeing her promos and as a guest (quite recently) on other of CNN news shows. I tuned in for part of last nigh and caught her story on the Wall Street protests. It was pandering, smarmy and mock-ish. Im not sure if it was supposed to be a Jeanne Moos type story or an Anderson Copper style “Ridiculist” type story… But it had neither the heart or humor of either of those. Instead she focused right on the freaks and the ridiculousness of them rather than the why the protest began. Not a germ of that! I am not affiliated with any of these protests, I am not without a job, I am not suffering in this economy, but I do empathize with the situation which spurred the movement.
This was a purely biased story and not the kind of journalism I expect from CNN. Bad reporting from a woman who turns out to be an elitist hack.
How is it possible for someone who has completed high school to so completely miss the point of what’s going on in the streets? ESPECIALLY when she has actually gone to the site.
Maybe it’s that your yuppie point of view leads you to see what you want to see.
Let me say it clearly, asshole: The giant Wall Street banks have caused immense suffering in the U.S. (and beyond) with their utter greed and lack of concern for others.
That selfishness (yet another BMW in the garage) is what motivates the demonstrators. It’s so obvious and so clear.
What to do about it is a problem because the power to make things right lies in the hands of the president and the Congress, most of whom are owned by those same banks that get them elected.
But these demonstrations will in the end show the country, and the world, where the problem lies. Even you, you spoiled brat, might come to understand it some day.
Until then, maybe you should get a job for which you are better equipped.
You truly are part of the problem, you twit.
I sent this to Erin Burnett’s Facebook
You are a reporter, not a judge. Your history, show you to be a bad choice for fair reporting on such a protest.
You used to work for the same financial companies that profited from the bailouts–Goldman Sachs, Citigroup. Your journalistic career includes attempts to promote Wall Street interests, earning you praise from the likes of Rush Limbaugh. You even tried to defend Wall Street giants from criticism over using TARP funds to pay giant bonuses.
For fair reporting on such a protest it has to be said that you are exactly the sort of reporter that should not be sent out, unless you can overcome your history, which, in view of the man you are engaged to marry, is unlikely.
As a minimum for good reporting on this issue you need to read The â┚¬Ã…“Declaration of the Occupation of New York Cityâ┚¬Ã‚ put out by the demonstrators.
Erin Burnett (10/3/11) needs some more factchecking on the question of the financial bailout– or perhaps she need include a few more facts to present a more fair and balanced view. Yes, the taxpayers were paid back and even gained $10 billion on the 700 billion TARP program but what about the $1.2 trillion that the Federal Reserve lent the banks? These programs have protected the banks and the big salaries of their executives but have done very little to ease the unemployment and the foreclosure crisis that impacts the average citizen. A crisis precipitated by the financial industry itself.
“A visiting reporter can shape whatever narrative he or she chooses by simply selecting whom to interview and which parts of those interviews make the cut.”
“At OccupySF on Saturday morning, I too could have crafted a story of hapless, unfocused hipsters had I chosen to focus on the 20-year-old kid serenading confused tourists with a bullhorn rendition of ‘You Are So Beautiful.’ But it wouldn’t have been honest.”
http://www.alternet.org/story/152610/putting_pundits_to_shame%3A_protesters_know_exactly_what_they%27re_fighting_for?page=entire
Without a doubt, had these protests been organized by Front Groups manipulating a Tea Party, CNN and Erin Burnett would have “crafted” a completely different (positive) view.
We are supposed to be happy we made money on this deal? Seriously? These people, in an uregulated enviorment, drove the economy off a cliff. Then the taxpayers bail them out to the tune of 1 trillion dollars. They then take the money we “lent” them and they lend it back to us (read: credit card) at what 8? 10? 12%?. They “pay it back” plus we “make” 10 billion. What is that 1%? And we are supposed to be happy? Seriously? Then they use the money that they made off us from the money we lent them to fight regulations that will prevent them from doing (at least this same exact thing) again. And we are supposed to be happy. Seriously?
Ms. Burnett,
I’m disgusted, but not surprised, by the lack of accuracy in your report on the Occupy Wall Street protests. I too am a journalist, and I know that fair and accurate reporting isn’t espousing your personal stance against something, using unsupported claims and misrepresentations to back up your personal opinion, and then turning to a conservative pundit to “explain” why your biases make sense. Stop perpetuating falsehoods and half truths, stop acting as a mouthpiece for corporate greed, stop acting against the rights of your fellow citizens. Start doing your job or you’ll end up having to find a new one. Thanks to you, 99% of this country has lost a little more faith in CNN’s integrity.
Sincerely,
Desiree Perez
All you need to know is that before entering broadcasting Erin was a loyal employee of Goldman Sachs.
Erin Burnett was a financial analyst for Goldman Sachs
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/fortune/0910/gallery.40_under_40.fortune/33.html
Need we say more?
Sent a comment to CNN. Here is their reply and my rejoinder
Subject: From CNN
Date: Thu, 6 Oct 2011 05:21:07 -0400
From: Erin.Burnett.OutFront@cnn.com
To: jimjimm3@hotmail.com
Thank you for your email to Erin Burnett OutFront.
This auto reply is your notification that we have received your email.
Tune in to Erin Burnett OutFront weeknights at 7PM ET. Designed to showcase Erin’s unique style–casual, smart, and confident–OutFront stays ahead of the headlines, delivering a show that’s in-depth and informative. Join the conversation on Facebook at Facebook.com/OutFrontCNN and tweet us at Twitter.com/OutFrontCNN. You can also weigh in on our blog at CNN.com/OutFront.
Again, thank you for contacting us, and please visit the attached links for more information on our anchors, programs and schedules:…”
My reply:
‘Casual smart and frank are all to the good. Perhaps a little more compassionate and informed would suit her better. ‘
“
Erin Burnett’s corporate agenda-laden dismissal of the Occupy Wall Street movement, of course, is just one more example of again eliminating actual content, and giving viewers the dismissive spin CNN wants them to hear – apparently following the Fox recipe in protecting your own corporate owned interests. I’m sure you all know the ACTUAL purposes (PLURAL!) of the Occupy Wall Street movement you’re trying to bury, but in case you need a reminder, you can find their demands in very intelligent, well thought out terms at the following site.
http://occupywallst.org/forum/proposed-list-of-demands-please-help-editadd-so-th/
It’s currently in a state of constant revision as members continue to create more avenues towards attempting to close loopholes of corporate/legislative abuse and write legislation which will impose consequences on abusers – all through the current process of getting the truth out to wake a distracted and mis-informed American public enough to gain support for these badly needed reforms. It’s obvious at this point that CNN is at odds with supplying the public with accurate content and prefers keeping their viewers clueless and predisposed towards keeping the status quo intact through inaccurate and belittling reporting.
I used to watch CNN to get actual balanced news, but now I simply watch-dog (to find out just how far your continuing swing to the right will bring you.) Eventually, CNN will be on the wrong side of history on this one.
If being a former employee of Goldman Sach’s is bad thing then The Obama Administration is really BAD.
April 2011 – Fundraiser for President Obama held at the Fifth Avenue home of former GOLDMAN SACHS, chief executive officer and former New JMark Patterson: former Goldman Sachs lobbyist, currently Treasury chief of staff; [118]
Gary Gensler: former Goldman partner, currently chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. [119]
Gene Sperling: former Goldman consultant earning $887,727 from the bank in 2008, currently Counselor to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. [120]
Diana Farrell: former Goldman employee, currently deputy director of the White House’s National Economic Council.
ersey Democratic Sen. Jon Corzine.
Comment to CNN:
Erin Burnett’s snide and glib comments and demeanor while covering the “Occupy Wall Street” story betray her superficial understanding of what is compelling so many members of our society to hit the streets.
Suggestion: If CNN and Burnett are interested in actual journalism why not do a story on the often referenced segment of unemployed America that is no longer eligible for unemployment benefits and has given-up trying to find work? How about an in-depth examination of who these people are, how they survive and what can be done to get them back to work? There are allegedly millions of these individuals–why not dig into this story and provide some information that most Americans are probably interested in learning and that may actually benefit someone?
Dear CNN,
What a ridiculously slanted and narrow piece on the Occupy Wall Street protests.
Not only did the piece intentionally miss the point of the protesters rage against the inequities caused by the failures of the financial system, its sole purpose was to marginalize through creative editing and snaky commentary.
Irrational and unfocused hatred of the US government by way of cute colonial Wi…lliamsburg costumes, brandishment of assault weapons, and signs equating the President of the United States to Hitler (not to mention, funded by right wing organizations and corporations)is somehow considered a legitimate movement of “patriots.”
Rage against the corporations and financial interests that CAUSED the situation this coutry is in, amorphous though it may be, somehow elicits ridicule.
Erin’s former employers at Goldmann Sachs and Citigroup (not to mention her fiancee)are hoping we’ll simply forget who caused what and instead focus on and blame the government, regulations, and taxes while they belittle, snark, and laugh all the way to the bank.
CNN, you are losing your credibility and respectability faster than you are losing your audience.
CNN,
OutFront is out of the box (the FOX box). Ms Burnett needs to be axed or reigned in on her outragious mis-charactorization and manipulation of serious events unfolding at Occupy Wall Street. She has discredited her show and CNN from the program’s outset, and exasserbated that by not correcting her messages, but rather choosing to further distorte and contrive some failure on the part of Michael Moore.
Burnett has a terrible yuppie “dont speak over me, while I.m so elligantly and briskly lying and hold the floor of network access”.
Do your market research, THE 99% ARE NOT BUYING THAT ANY MORE. They already identify with our young unintended leaders at Occupy Wall Street, who are being arrested and disregarded by police and MSM.
Get rid of her.
Michael Daly
Honolulu
It’s outrageous that Erin Burnett ridiculed the protesters occupying Wall Street, when she enjoys close connections to some of the banks and the big execs who run those banks. An example of hypocrisy of the highest order! And why doesn’t she interview some of the economists who could set the record straight?!
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