Last week while I was on vacation, the White House issued an extraordinary letter chastising NBC News for dishonestly editing an interview with President Bush.
The interview was conducted by NBC News correspondent Richard Engle, who consistently demonstrates an anti-Bush posture in his reporting, as we've pointed out. Reaction from Republicans was harsh:
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KARL ROVE, FORMER BUSH ADVISER: They deliberately edited out the president correcting Engel's depiction of what his speech was about. They deliberately left that on the cutting floor. And pretty remarkable.
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But shouldn't the president have known about the NBC bias before he sat down with Mr. Engle? After all, there is no question NBC News has taken a sharp turn to the left and is no longer an objective news agency.
Case in point: a report on the McCain-Obama Iran dispute, introduced by Brian Williams. This is a very important story with two legitimate sides: whether or not the president should meet with Ahmadinejad. The Williams program showed Sen. McCain sitting alone while stating his case. Meantime, Obama was shown giving his opinion in front of thousands of cheering fans. That, ladies and gentlemen, is blatant bias.
For months, both Republicans and Democrats have publicly condemned NBC's bias. You'll remember an NBC correspondent saying the Clintons "pimped" their daughter Chelsea, and another NBC smear-merchant calling President Bush a "knuckle-dragger," among other harsh personal attacks.
Stuff like this has never been seen before on a major national news network. And NBC News President Steve Capus is directly responsible for the disgrace.
But worse — far worse — is the behavior of the big boss at NBC, Jeffrey Immelt, the CEO of parent company General Electric.
Last week, The Washington Post reported that GE has about $50 million on the table in business dealings with Iran. Doing the math, that means $250 million could have been derived since Iran began killing Americans in Iraq about five years ago. And you may remember Immelt denying GE's Iran connection to "Factor" producer Jesse Watters, who confronted him last fall:
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JESSE WATTERS, "FACTOR" PRODUCER: Mr. Immelt, Jesse with FOX News. We'd like to talk to you about your involvement with Iran. Are you still trading with Iran while Iranians are killing Americans in Iraq?
JEFFREY IMMELT, GENERAL ELECTRIC CEO: No, we're not.
WATTERS: You are not selling them airplane parts that they can — be used for military equipment?
IMMELT: No.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Immelt did not tell the truth because he knows that Iran is directly responsible for killing and maiming thousands of American troops while his company is profiting from doing business with the homicidal mullahs.
The situation is now being condemned at the highest levels:
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O'REILLY: I mean, I am just furious. I'm angry. An American company should not be doing business with Iran.
JOHN MCCAIN: I don't think that they should. And the Iranians today are not only moving forward on the nuclear weapons issue, but apparently, according to reports, they're actually — some people coming out of Iraq are being trained and sent back in.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
"Talking Points" submits that the conduct of GE and NBC News is unprecedented in America. With the exception of the "Today" show and some individual NBC correspondents, the network has violated just about every journalistic standard.
Just today, the Associated Press spotlighted NBC's problems, even as another U.N. report says Iran continues to develop nukes. Meantime, GE is still in business with the mullahs.
Jeffrey Immelt and his corporation owe a huge karma debt to the nation and to military families. Perhaps GE might donate the $250 million in Iranian blood money to the military families.
And that's "The Memo."
Pinheads & Patriots
Our pal Gary Sinise uses his great success in very positive ways, constantly helping others and supporting American troops.
On Memorial Day, Mr. Sinise, along with actor Joe Mantegna, hosted PBS's annual concert in Washington. The program honored all American vets and paid special tribute to actor Charles Durning, a World War II hero.
So Sinise, Mantegna and Durning are all patriots. And it's good to see that in Hollywood, isn't it?
That's because we see a lot of Sharon Stone-type stuff, this about China and Tibet.
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SHARON STONE, ACTRESS: They're not being nice to the Dalai Lama, who's a good friend of mine. And then all this earthquake and all this stuff happened, and I thought, is that karma? When you're not nice and bad things happen to you?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Now I believe in karma, but 57,000 innocent people don't die in a justice play. The Chinese government's responsible for Tibet, not the poor earthquake victims. Ms. Stone needs to wise up and stop being a pinhead.
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