christiefan915 (03-30-2011)
Nightly News stays mum on GEs $0 tax bill
By Chris Lehmann chris Lehmann
As the New Yorker's former press critic, A.J. Liebling, famously said, "Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one." Perhaps that quotation is framed somewhere in a boardroom at the General Electric Corp., which owns NBC News.
In spite of robust profits of $14.2 billion worldwide, GE has calculated a corporate tax bill for 2010 that adds up to zero, via a creative series of tax referrals and revenue shifts. (This was, indeed, the second year running that the company—which has an enormous, and famously nimble, 975-employee tax division, led by former Treasury official John Samuels—paid nothing in U.S. taxes; indeed by claiming a series of losses and deductions, GE came up with a negative tax of 10.5 percent in the admittedly dismal business year of 2009, and realized a $1.5 billion "tax benefit.")
The curious thing about this year's tax story is that it turned up in many major news outlets, with one key exception: NBC News. As the Washington Post's Paul Farhi notes, the network's "Nightly News" broadcast, hosted by Brian Williams, has not mentioned anything about its corporate parent's resourceful accounting, even though the story has been in wide circulation in the business and general-interest press for nearly a week. "This was a straightforward news decision, the kind we make daily around here" network spokeswoman Lauren Kapp told the Post.
One press critic who begs to differ: Daily Show host Jon Stewart, who noted that the Nightly News found the time for a dispatch on the inclusion of slang expressions in the Oxford English Dictionary, such as "LOL" and "OMG." Of course, Comedy Central's corporate parent, Viacom, is also no slouch when it comes to tax strategy: Earlier this year it sold its struggling videogame unit Harmonix for $50—so that it could claim a tax credit of $50 million.
christiefan915 (03-30-2011)
Yes, they paid more than you did.
But did you intentionally ignore legal deductions? Did you volunteer to pay extra money to do your part? Did you avoid spending, selling, buying, or donating in such a way as to get the deductions?
Because that is what GE did. They used the loopholes, deductions and credits that our federal gov't allows them.
Don't be pissed at GE. Be pissed at our current tax system.
And most importantly.....they donated big bucks.....VERY BIG BUCKS to the Democratic Party and many of its members running for reelection....
Put blame where it belongs
ATF decided it could not regulate bump stocks during the Obama administration.
It that time," the NRA wrote in a statement. "The NRA believes that devices designed to allow semiautomatic rifles to function like fully-automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulations."
The ATF and Obama admin. ignored the NRA recommendations.
"It [the draft] is duty rather than slavery. I part with the author on the caviler idea that individual freedom (whatever that may be to the person) leads to nirvana, anyone older that 12 knows that is BS."
-(Midcan5)
"Allow me to masturbate my patriotism furiously and publicly at this opportunity."
-(Ib1yysguy)
"There is no 'equal opportunity' today unless the government makes it so."
-(apple0154 )
"abortion is not killing Its birth control"
-(Desh)
I haven't read most of your post, but what a great post!
By what I can find, & correct me if I'm wrong; I think I paid more in income taxes than GE.
Not only that, I hear that the big guy from GE,,,,,,,,,,, went to Brazil with the "Great Leader".
I also here that we can hope that Brazil can make up for the oil we won't drill for ourselves here in our own country.
In the future.
You know, my brother threw one of those mandated light bulbs away in the trash the other day.
You know,,,,,,, one of the light bulbs that has Mercury in it.
Soon to be the only ones we can legally use, & buy.
I wonder how long that will take to get into the water supply that are close to land fills?
And we can drink it.
But that would be your kids, and grandkids, and so on,,,,,,,,,,,,,, with this problem.
Maybe the ones that voted for the legislators,,,,,, that voted for this,,,, could stay alive long enough to enjoy the fruits of their choice.
You know,,,, the people that voted for the loones that made this fact a reality.
That would be justice.
True justice.
Man knows no master save creating heaven,
or those whom choice and common good ordain.
Demacrat--Republican---------------------Center-------------------------------------------Libartarian
Marxist, and little freedom--------------------------------------------------Anti-Marxist-Much Liberty
"There are two ways to conquer and enslave a nation. . . One is by
sword. . . The other is by debt.
John Adams 1826
ass clowns and accounting don't mix.
The stone that the builder refused
Will always be the head corner stone
If you own your own house,
And it's paid for,
And you have a dime in your pocket,
You have more money than the US Government.
Man knows no master save creating heaven,
or those whom choice and common good ordain.
Demacrat--Republican---------------------Center-------------------------------------------Libartarian
Marxist, and little freedom--------------------------------------------------Anti-Marxist-Much Liberty
"There are two ways to conquer and enslave a nation. . . One is by
sword. . . The other is by debt.
John Adams 1826
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