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"The height of irresponsibility. It is shameful." Perhaps he meant shameless in characterizing the gall of Wall Street financiers who paid themselves $18bn in year-end bonuses to cap a 2008 in which their industry posted hundreds of billions in losses. Anyway Barack Obama's use of the bully pulpit of the Presidency to castigate high finance was the lead on all three network newscasts, the unanimous choice for Story of the Day. CBS and NBC both led from the White House--for an Obamaniacal at NBC it was the first of three reports with a White House angle. ABC led from Wall Street's home of New York City.

NBC's White House correspondent Chuck Todd heard the President "channeling his inner populist" as the bonuses ticked him off. He predicted that Obama will "roll out new rules that these executives will have to follow if they want bailout money from the government." Chip Reid of CBS went further. His unidentified White House sources told him "the President wants nothing less than to redo the way Wall Street does business."

ABC's Dan Harris and CBS' Anthony Mason covered the arguments on Wall Street to justify bonus pay in a loss-making year. Mason argued to his anchor Katie Couric that the billions were "not nearly as nefarious as they sound" because "bonus" was really a misnomer--it is more like a sales commission for bringing in business. The average bonus in 2008 was 37% lower than that of 2007. Still Mason conceded "by Main Street standards Wall Streeters are extremely well paid." ABC' Harris examined the argument that bonus pay is necessary for a firm to stop its "best people" from seeking work elsewhere. The polite riposte to that is that "banks are firing not hiring these days." Harris also quoted Jon Stewart's sarcastic version on Comedy Central's The Daily Show: "You lost $27bn. Do you live in Bizarro World?"


Andrew Tyndall 1/31/09 1:20:54 am

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