The Washington Post still won’t go there!

THURSDAY, JUNE 21, 2012

What really happened at Bain: Yesterday morning, the Washington Post ran a gigantic front-page report about Mitt Romney and Bain Capital.

The piece ran 2600 words. And the Washington Post still won’t go there!

You couldn’t call this a flattering piece, but the Post pulled several punches. Somewhat comically, the front-page headline concerned an old, unflattering photo—a photo in which Romney and the rest of the merry men were shown exulting in their cash from Bain, very much Uncle Scrooge-style.

The front-page headline cited the photo—but the photo itself wasn’t shown! You had to venture inside the Post to view that damning portrait!

That’s a fairly minor point. The larger point is this:

Philip Rucker goes on and on for 2600 words. He describes the heady days when Romney and Bain were young. But wouldn’t you know it? Despite all those words, the Washington Post still didn’t go where rubber meets the road.

Did Romney loot those pension funds? The Post doesn’t talk about that!

Way back when, Reuters reported on the way Romney and Bain “underfunded” workers’ pensions. They walked away with mountains of cash—and those workers got looted.

Rather plainly, the New York Times has refused to discuss this matter. (In a long report, Julie Creswell said the pensions were "underfunded," then quickly left it at that.) Is the Post following suit? Yesterday, Rucker stuck to the early days of Bain, before the looting occurred.

We wouldn’t want to upset Cory Booker, who needs big cash from his wealthy contributors. We wouldn’t make to make Rachel Maddow play any dumber on this topic than she has already done. (On Monday, she and Frank Rich played it Big and Dumb. We’ll discuss that program next week.)

But will anyone ever report the way those pensions got “underfunded?” Bain walked away with $44 million. Those rubes walked away with the shaft.

Rachel is still covering for her pal, treating her viewers like fools in the process. (This seems to be one of her favorite pastimes.)

Will anyone ever tell us what happened? Or in a world of millionaire elites, don’t those working stiffs count?

4 comments:

  1. Goddammit, I don't care about this stuff! I don't care about those dumbass workers and their pathetic little Walmart/Golden Corral/no college redneck world! I love Rachel because she helps me laugh at the conservatives. THAT's what I want out of politics, and Rachel delivers. So stop talking about this stuff, because it isn't important. Only little people who drive American cars and eat cheap meat at cheap buffets and listen to awful country music should be conserned about this, not people like ME.

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  2. Hey Bob, where did you find that total figure that Bain walked away with $44 million? I've been looking for it, but not surprisingly, the reports haven't been clear. I saw the early massive dividend in the Reuters story. Then I've read that Bain "reinvested" some of that money into the company. How much? I've seen another story saying Bain made $12 million off this company. So if you've got the total amount that Bain took, it would be appreciated. Thanks.

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  3. One Percent FlyswatterJune 21, 2012 at 4:25 PM

    Yup.

    The Reuters report should be enough. If it's not important to our journalists, that must mean it isn't really significant.

    If there was anything there, I'm sure they'd be all over it like rice on Whitewater, or however that saying goes.

    I think "our elites" mostly do want Obama to win reelection, but also that they don't expect Romney to do them any harm either, to put it mildly.

    They aren't really very invested in stirring up "class war" themes like pension fund looting by Bain.

    If Obama can win based on the usual stupid shit, well hooray. If Romney squeaks in anyway, no biggie -- for them.

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  4. Thanks, Bob, for linking to that WaPo article that explains how Bain Capital was founded and how it actually worked. IMHO the reason the article didn't talk about looting pension funds is that Bain Capital wasn't in the business of looting. Yesterday, Washington Post's Fact Checker gave 4 Pinocchios to Obama’s newest anti-Romney ad, writing:

    In a previous life, The Fact Checker covered renowned corporate raiders such as Carl Icahn and his ilk. We also have closely studied Bain Capital and can find no examples that come close to this situation; its deals were done in close association with management. Indeed, Bain generally held onto its investments for four or five years, in contrast to the quick bust-em-ups of real corporate raiders. So calling Romney a “corporate raider” is a real stretch.

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