Drama at GE shareholders meeting

[Ban Hammer 13,403]

The hostility between Fox News Channel and MSNBC reached a fever pitch Wednesday when a Fox producer infiltrated the GE shareholders meeting.

Just before GE re-elected board members, company brass were hit with questions from shareholders critical of an alleged leftward political slant at MSNBC.

But one of those questions came from Jesse Waters, a producer on "The O'Reilly Factor" whose criticisms were cut short when his microphone was cut off, according to several attendees. Waters apparently did not publicly identify himself as a Fox employee.

Waters has built a reputation as an ambush interviewer, specializing in on-the-street confrontations. But this is arguably the boldest move by a Fox newsie to utilize the tactic inside their chief rival's tent, as it were.

O'Reilly and MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann have been involved in a running feud for several years, but the pissing match between the two has of late started to envelope other parts of the News Corp. and GE empires.

GE pointed out that Waters had Fox News cameras waiting outside the Orlando meeting.

Attendees who spoke to The Hollywood Reporter said shareholders asked about 10 politically charged questions concerning MSNBC as well as one about CNBC.

First up was a woman asking about a reported meeting in which CEO Jeff Immelt and NBC Uni CEO Jeff Zucker supposedly told top CNBC executives and talent to be less critical of President Obama and his policies.

Immelt acknowledged a meeting took place but said no one at CNBC was told what to say or not to say about politics.

During the woman's follow-up question, her microphone was apparently cut off. A short time later, Waters asked a question and his mic was cut, too.

"The crowd was very upset with MSNBC because of its leftward tilt," one attendee said. "Some former employees said they were embarrassed by it."

When he got the floor, Waters focused his question about MSNBC on Olbermann's interview of actress Janeane Garofalo, who likened conservatives to racists and spoke of "the limbic brain inside a right-winger."

"He (Waters) was complaining that Olbermann didn't bother to challenge her," another GE shareholder said.

Immelt told the assembled he takes a hands-off approach to what is reported on the company's news networks, which prompted a shareholder to criticize him for not managing NBC Uni more effectively.

"My biggest surprise was the open hostility to MSNBC," said Tom Borelli of the Free Enterprise Action Fund and a four-year critic of Immelt. "It was noticeable and loud. I don't remember any of this going on last year."

"Any time MSNBC was mentioned, there was a rumbling in the crowd of 400 people," he added. Borelli also asked a question pertaining to GE's stock performance since Immelt took the helm.

A GE corporate spokesman on Thursday morning pointed out that there was no attempt to cut anyone off who had questions or comments to make.

In fact, corporate spokesman Gary Sheffer said, the meeting did not conclude until everyone who wanted to speak had a chance -- and some shareholders returned to the standing microphone multiple times.

As for Fox News producer Jesse Waters, he had his say and left the gathering to do stand-up interviews with other attendees outside the proceeding. He was, Sheffer said, asked not to videotape during the meeting, which is not, per stated corporate policy, allowed by any shareholders during the event. (Waters, who is a shareholder, had attended last year as well and had tried then too to record the proceedings.)

As for Borelli, a Google search showed that he has appeared on Fox News more than once. Further, the previously unidentified woman who asked a question about CNBC is Borelli's wife, and did indeed identify herself as such. She apparently thought she was being cut off after her first question and Immelt's response (saying, per Sheffer, "you are not going to cut me off"), but was allowed to continue.

The meeting, which lasted more than two hours, was described by all four of the attendees THR talked to subsequently as variously rancorous or critical. Other than questions about MSNBC, shareholders brought up questions about executive pay and cuts to the company's dividend.

The company made available a webcast of the event, which contains prepared remarks from Immelt and CFO Keith Sherin, but not their interaction with shareholders.

A GE spokesman said the company traditionally doesn't broadcast the entire meeting. He also defended the right of Waters, a shareholder, to ask questions of GE brass.

In other comments about the economy, Immelt said this is the worst it's been since the Great Depression and that it would ultimately lead to changes such as greater government involvement in business and a restructuring of the financial services sector that was a root of the crisis.

"We are living through history, and I don't mean that in a positive sense," Immelt said.

The CEO tried to assure shareholders that GE has positioned itself for an economic recovery, with a new focus on products that could capture some of what GE estimates is $2 trillion worth of government stimulus spending worldwide. That includes windmills and other clean energy equipment and new health care technology.

Sherin was conciliatory when discussing GE's decision to cut its dividend by 67% in March, the first reduction in the quarterly payment since 1938. GE has said the move was needed to save $9 billion per year in cash.

"We feel terrible about it, but it was the right thing to do," Sherin said.

Shares of GE rose 10 cents Wednesday to close at $11.80.

link