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The political outrage against the millions of dollars paid in bonuses to traders at American International Group--even as the government bailed out the insurance conglomerate with billions of federal dollars--continued unabated. Monday the Story of the Day was Barack Obama's objection. Tuesday turned to Capitol Hill where various ideas were floated to recoup the $165m, out of which 73 millionaire staffers received seven-figure lump sums. All three newscasts led with AIG. CBS used Maggie Rodriguez as substitute anchor. NBC expanded its newshole (23 min v ABC 18, CBS 19) with limited commercials courtesy of Fidelity Investments, its sole sponsor.

"Congress is busy throwing its weight around," NBC's Kelly O'Donnell remarked, with some members trying to "shame and embarrass" AIG bonus recipients into returning the money; others to tax it away from them; others to renege on the supposedly guaranteed contracts. O'Donnell asked about the Charles Grassley radio soundbite to AIG execs that CBS' Chip Reid used Monday: "Resign or go commit suicide." The Iowa Republican explained what he meant by that: "I am not suggesting that anybody in America commit suicide."

CBS' Congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes picked up on a likely clawback tax proposal that may "pass legal muster" to assess 35% of the bonus from the recipient and 35% from AIG itself. Jonathan Karl, ABC's man on Capitol Hill, looked at AIG's campaign contributions during 2008. "Even as the company was crumbling," hundreds of thousands of dollars were donated to "power broker" senators Christopher Dodd, Barack Obama John McCain, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Max Baucus, Joe Biden.

From New York, ABC's David Muir followed the investigation into the bonuses by Andrew Cuomo, that state's Attorney General. He found they were "so-called retention bonuses, meant to keep good talent at the company--but eleven of those recipients no longer even work there." As for "good talent," most were working at the Financial Products Division in London, "the unit that engineered the company's downfall," as CBS' Cordes put it. ABC's Betsy Stark (at the tail of the Karl videostream) characterized AIG as "a giant conglomerate--several traditional insurance companies and one rogue unit that really is at the source of the problem."

At the White House, CBS' Reid did double duty, filing highlights of his network's latest opinion poll on the state of the economy--a "grim" 84% believe the recession has a year to run--and following questions about the "embattled" Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. "He did not learn about the bonuses until exactly a week ago," according to his department's timeline. The official White House line was that the AIG bonuses "would be even bigger if Geithner had not intervened." For a heartland dose of populist ire at the entire affair, NBC's Kevin Tibbles filed a vox pop from an Illinois barbershop and an Iowa diner.


Andrew Tyndall 3/18/09 8:53:49 pm

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