Obama called for further regulation of the financial system on April 22, delivering a
In their reports that night, both ABC and NBC mentioned the Securities and Exchange Commission case against the investment bank, Goldman Sachs. What none of the networks admitted were Obama’s cozy ties to Goldman and its CEO Lloyd Blankfein.
McClatchy reported on April 21 that Blankfein personally visited the White House at LEAST four times “while Goldman Sachs’ lawyers negotiated with the Securities and Exchange Commission over potentially explosive civil fraud charges.”
Blankfein traveled for two events with Obama and met twice with Obama economic adviser Larry Summers. The report also noted the nearly $1 million ($944,795) Obama campaign donations from Goldman employees during the 2008 election cycle.
McClatchy said those connections were “raising eyebrows,” but not on the network news. All three networks ignored the information and, in the case of NBC and ABC, while mentioning the civil allegations against Goldman.
“Nightly News” correspondent Savannah Guthrie said “The mostly friendly audience of supporters also included the CEO of Goldman Sachs whose firm was just charged by the SEC with a billion-dollar fraud.”
ABC’s Jake Tapper also mentioned Blankfein’s presence at the speech “despite the recent government lawsuit accusing his firm of misleading investors.” CBS only showed Goldman Sachs’ logo when mentioning that the big banks are willing to work with the president on financial “reform.”
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