Dear Financial Press, watching you do Goldman Sachs bidding in the last 24 hours has been a disgrace

[ProSense]

Dear Financial Press, watching you do Goldman Sachs bidding in the last 24 hours has been a disgrace

by MinistryOfTruth

This is one of the reasons why we have financial disasters.

Because we have an utterly corrupt corporate press that is too busy defending the Too Big To Fail banks when they are supposed to be informing and protecting their viewers.

Yesterday a Goldman Sachs employee exposed his former employer in a powerful resignation letter published in an op-ed at the NewYorkTimes. Immediately, the Goldman Sachs smear machine began. What has taken place among the American Financial Press in the last 24 hours has been an utter disgrace. The American financial press got caught with their pants down, and their decision to echo Goldman's attack against whistleblower Greg Smith is the perfect example of why our financial news media is a big part of the reason we have these economic disasters in the first place. To serve and protect the big financial players, that is the motto of the financial press.

Frankly, everyone in the financial press who participated in this extended smear campaign on behalf of Goldman Sachs should be laughed out of the business of journalism. This isn't journalism, this is stenography on behalf of Goldman Sachs.

<...>

Over the past 24 hours, ThinkProgress.org has amassed several examples of the corporate financial press echoing the Goldman Sachs talking points on Greg Davis, in several instances the most childish manner possible, just go below the orange squiggle of pitchforks and outrage for more . . .


Who wants to play "Let's pretend the unethical cesspool isn't the problem!"

– The Wall Street Journal reported that “people familiar with the matter” said that Smith is just miffed that his bonus was small: “The circumstances of Mr. Smith’s departure aren’t entirely clear. When Goldman doled out annual bonuses earlier this year, Mr. Smith’s small payment became a point of friction, according to people familiar with the matter.”

– Forbes’ Nathan Vardi wrote that Smith is just “having a midlife crisis“: “Smith is not the first person who wants to tell his former bosses to shove it. He is also not a whistleblower.”

The financial prognosticators at CNBC decided to mock Smith, saying that he would go form a media firm with Rolling Stone writer and staunch Goldman critic Matt Taibbi and the characters from Sesame Street. CNBC also compared Smith to Tom Cruise’s character in Jerry Maguire, airing the clip of that film when Cruise asks “who’s coming with me?” repeatedly, with no one actually going with him.

thinkprogress.org

Did any of these hacks report what Smith actually said, like this . . .

"It makes me ill how callously people talk about ripping their clients off."

nytimes.com

Does our press report THAT? No, instead they report what "people familiar with the story" said as the Wall Street Journal did or they behave like snotty 15 year old popular girls in high school the way CNBC chose to portray this event, but when it comes to taking something simple and flipping it on it's head so you can attack all of your enemies at once while playing the victim, Fox News truly is Number One in the business . . .

- more -

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/03/15/1072428/-Dear-Financial-Press-watching-you-do-Goldman-Sachs-bidding-in-the-last-24-hours-has-been-a-disgrace

The claims were devastating enough to cause this:

Goldman Roiled by Op-Ed Loses $2.2 Billion for Shareholders

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/goldman-roiled-op-ed-loses-102557964.html

The media's attempt to smear Smith and downplay the severity of the charges is very disturbing.

[gateley]

1. I'm happy to hear that Goldman suffered losses as a result of this. I doubt it's because

all those people wanted to cease doing business with such an organization, but rather just because of what happened -- stock prices being affected.

And you're right -- usually it's the whistleblowers who are discounted and sentenced by the press.

[GopperStopper2680]

3. I too am pleased..

to hear that Goldman lost money over this. There should be SOME kind of reprisal for these criminal giants when they do these things. Pity that the losses won't be severe enough for them to learn anything from it. Goldman is a genuine monster of a bank. (in all that implies.)

[yurbud]

2. This is how the world ends for the corporatocracy: one whistleblower...

hacker, or monkey wrencher at a time.

I hope Smith writes follow up op-eds until Goldman goes bankrupt.

Also, can this finally shame Obama into prosecuting Blankfein and other top execs at Goldman?

[GopperStopper2680]

4. Let us all hope..

That this doesn't dissuade the few honest employees that these monsters have from coming forward!

[yurbud]

5. If his column is accurate, there's a self-interested reason for more to betray Goldman:

like idiots who rob convenience stores without wearing masks, the top execs aren't thinking long term: if you screw your customers today, you won't have any tomorrow, especially if you specialize in the high rollers and old money crowd--there's only so many of them and they do talk to each other.

Smith just showed why a lot of the 1% should want a revolution too.

[gateley]

6. I was bemoaning the fact that usually the whistleblowers get blown off, and life goes

on as usual, but a friend said "no, this time nobody is believing what Goldman is saying -- nobody trusts them anymore"

Isn't that sweet?

[yurbud]

7. especially since their business depends on a LOT of trust, but

who couldn't have figured out what Greg Smith said well before he said it?

Maybe the only thing that was a revelation was the see ALL clients as suckers, and the big fish are just given a little more line to make them easier to haul in.

[indepat]

8. CNBC: like snotty 15-year-old popular girls in high school. I like that and nominate Joe

as the snotiest of the lot.