As the Cable Gamer observed yesterday, it sure seems as if, say, Keith Olbermann, Brian Williams, and Matt Lauer should be covered by President Obama's $500,000 salary cap for bailed out firms. Why? Because NBC and MSNBC are part of GE, and GE also owns GE Capital, which got $139 billion in loan guarantees from the feds last year and seems destined to get a lot more help from Uncle Sam.
But some of my smarter readers have pointed out that despite their multi-million dollar salaries, Olbermann et al. might not be covered by the cap because they "talent," and not executives, and thus might somehow not legally considered "top," or "senior" executives. Now this is legal hairsplitting, obviously, but let's face it--this is a world dominated by legal hairsplitters.
But Jeffrey R. Immelt, Keith S. Sherin, Michael A. Neal, John G. Rice, and Robert C. Wright are most definitely "senior executives." As the page* shown above reveals, all five of them have the word "chairman" in their title; Immelt is the chairman and CEO, while the other four are vice chairs, along with other duties (except for Bob Wright, who seems to have no real duties, at least not for GE). And all of these men were paid at least $10.6 million in 2007, the last year for which data are available.
So they all should be affected by the $500,000 salary cap. And, oh, by the way, what about Jeff Zucker, the chief of NBC-Universal? Surely he's senior! The Cable Gamer hasn't yet figured out how much money he makes a year, but she will bet that it's a big multiple of $500k. So will he be capped? Surely such caps would be within the spirit of what Obama proposed on Wednesday, surely the public has no more sympathy for Immelt, Zucker, et al. than for the likes of Wall Streeters such as John Thain and bankers such as Ken Lewis.
Now, of course, GE has fleets of lawyers and lobbyists who are getting paid to think differently, and they will be pulling all-nighters to show how the caps are not binding on Immelt et al., to say nothing of Olbermann and all the rest. And so GE execs, and the TV talent at all the NBC-U properties, will be lobbying and hairsplitting all over the Beltway to save themselves from the caps. Indeed, Immelt will get to make the case for exempting himself and his friends personally, to the President, now that he is a part of Obama's economic advisory council, the one that was just unveiled at the White House on Friday.
But here's the rub. If the Obamans let themselves get rolled on this issue, if they let GE collect bailout money and then exempt itself from the caps, well, then, the 44th President will look like a hypocrite--one standard for Americans, one standard for his friends.
Or, Obama could be stern and lay down the law, even to political allies, such as Immelt. He could say, bluntly and publicly, "If you get the government bailout, you get the government rules--and the government restrictions. No exceptions."
That would be the right thing to do. We'll see if Obama does it.
* page 20 of GE's 2008 proxy statement
