Friday, May 9, 2008

O'Reilly's Factor Fix-Up against GE.

Bill O'Reilly is known for sending out Jesse Waters, his little "producer" to events where the presence of Bill O himself would bring up red flags.  So, O'Reilly sent the producer to cover GE's shareholder meeting.

It was not hard to find shareholders at the meeting who disapprove of GE conducting any business in Iran, although GE has not done business directly with the country's rulers.  GE's customers have been European oil and gas companies with operations in Iran.

Also at that meeting, an investor in GE, Dr Tom Borelli of the Free Enterprise Action Fund (US ticker symbol FEAOX) confronted GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt about doing business in Iran.  Please note, you only heard the confrontation on O'Reilly's show, you couldn't see it, because, just as at so many other shareholder meetings, no recording devices are allowed, so Fox News broke that rule.

But The Factor didn't tell you everything about Dr Tom Borelli, who also was O'Reilly's guest on the segment.  From doing a little research, it turns out that Dr Tom Borelli has some very interesting history.  Back in 1990, he was Director of Corporate Scientific Affairs at Philip Morris, the tobacco company.  He was amongst the group of people who were constantly trying to tell us that smoking wasn't bad for us, and there was no danger from second hand smoke. 

Tom Borelli also writes for some conservative political websites, such as TownHall.com and Human Events.  In other words, Dr Tom Borelli is a political animal with more than a little interest in doing business with Fox News and Bill O'Reilly against GE.

The segment is embedded below.

 

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