Media Matters: ABC News embarrasses itself

[ProSense]

ABC News embarrasses itself

Read this, if you must. It's by Scott Mayerowitz and it's painfully, painfully stupid.

Here's a flavor:

America's CEOs are coming under fire these days not just for their hefty salaries but also for their use of private jets, limos with drivers and free trips to posh resorts. But they aren't alone in living this lavish lifestyle -- the president of United States gets all these perks and more.

And unlike some of his Cabinet appointments, he doesn't have to pay taxes on these benefits. It might be a bit of a stretch to compare today's corporate titans with the commander in chief, but some Wall Street bloggers clearly upset with President Obama's attempts to rein in executive pay are doing just that.

"Some accountability needs to be put in place. We won't have them kicking sand in the face of taxpayers any longer," said one private equity worker on Dealbreaker.com, a Wall Street gossip site and blog.

Obama has proposed capping annual compensation at $500,000 for executive at financial firms that receive huge government bailouts. Therefore, ABC News, responding to "Wall Street bloggers," writes up a 'news' story noting that gee, the president gets paid a lot of money, too.

If your head isn't starting to hurt, then by all means click on the article and read the whole thing and read how Mayerowitz completely ignores the fact that some of the CEO's in question were making tens of millions of dollars, while the POTUS makes just $400,000. But yeah, their pay is still analogous.

more

Parity: Cap all executive pay at $400,000, no bonuses.

[ProSense]

1. ABC: Obama Is Hypocritical For Limiting Wall Street Pay While Having A ‘Lavish Lifestyle’

ABC: Obama Is Hypocritical For Limiting Wall Street Pay While Having A ‘Lavish Lifestyle’:

As its evidence that “corporate America” is upset, ABC said that “some Wall Street bloggers” are angry with the compensation cap. But the article cited only one blogger, Dealbreaker.com, who — apparently poking fun at Sen. Claire McCaskill’s statement — remarked, “Some accountability needs to be put in place. We won’t have them kicking sand in the face of taxpayers any longer.” Dealbreaker.com also suggests charging rent for White House tenants.

Comparing the President to Wall Street CEOs is absurd. The “private jet” that Obama uses is Air Force One, which is used as a security precaution and necessary for the dozens of staff and press that accompany the President on every trip. Each use of the jet by the President is regarded as a “classified military operation” in order to ensure the President’s safety.

Furthermore, Obama’s salary is set by Congress (whose members are elected by the public). CEO compensation is decided internally within the company, usually by its board of directors. The problem with recent excessive CEO compensation was that executives receiving federal funds were still rewarded for failure with tens of millions of dollars from their companies.

The President, on the other hand, does not get a bonus for his performance, good or bad. Indeed, Presidents Bush and Obama earn the same salary. County Fair at Media Matters has more.

[KittyWampus]

2. Dear Ceiling Cat, PLEASE let Jon Stewart get his teeth into this