The media villagers rally round Romney

Posted by AzblueMeanie:

The pretty boys and girls who populate the corporate television media today are unworthy of the title of journalist. They demean the giants who preceded them like Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, and many others.

On a Friday night news dump, Willard "Mittens" Romney scheduled interviews with five television networks to essentially repeat his campaign's talking point that he had no operational control of Bain Capital or any other Bain entity after February 1999. Romney dismissed numerous SEC filings bearing his name and signature up until 2002, when he was on a leave of absence from Bain Capital, as mere "legal technicalities." Pishaw.

Not one of these reproters came prepared for their interview with Romney. Not one of these reporters had a copy of the trial transcript from the Massachusetts ballot challenge in 2002. Old Romney Testimony Undermines Today's Bain Claims:

Instead of leaving in 1999, Romney suggested in his testimony that he only left Bain after the Olympics in 2002: “I left on the basis of a leave of absence indicating that I, by virtue of that title, would return at the end of the Olympics to my employment at Bain Capital, but subsequently decided not to do so and entered into a departure agreement with my former partners. I use that in the colloquial sense, not legal sense, but my former partners."

The opening statement delivered by Romney's lawyer in that 2002 hearing said Romney "continued to serve on the board of directors of a significant Massachusetts company and to return here for most of its board meetings."

Not one of these reporters had a copy of Romney's 2011 public financial disclosure form, sworn under pain of perjury, that stated:

“Mr.  Romney  retired  from  Bain  Capital  on  February  11,  1999  to  head  the  Salt  Lake Organizing Committee.  Since February  11,  1999, Mr. Romney has  not had any  active role  with  any  Bain Capital  entity  and  has  not  been  involved  in  the  operations of any Bain Capital entity in any way.”

Not one of these reporters presented the documentary evidence and asked Romney the key question: "In your 2002 trial testimony, you indicated that you left Bain Capital in 2002, but in your 2011 public financial disclosure form, under penalty of perjury, you state that you left Bain Capital in February 1999. Both sworn statements cannot be true. Were you lying to qualify for the Massachusetts ballot in 2002, or are you lying now?" (Lawyers love this question).

As Glenn Kessler noted yesterday, If Romney lied on this public financial disclosure form, that would be a felony.

So instead what we got from the pretty boys and girls of the corporate television media was a barely confrontational interview in which the corporate media villagers simply allowed Mittens to spin his campaign talking points without seriously challenging him on any facts. They are less than useless.

Fortuantely, there are a few real reporters still left in this world. There are new details out today. David Bernstein writes More Romney Signatures: DDi, 2000/2001 – Talking Politics:

In a controversial investment deal that led to a federal inquiry, Mitt Romney personally signed SEC documents reporting the sale of Bain Capital shares in 2000 and 2001 — during the time when he was on leave of absence to run the Salt Lake Olympic Games.

The Boston Globe reported in 2003, during the SEC investigation, that "Romney… signed the SEC's necessary documents for Bain when his company — and he as an individual shareholder — sold their stakes in DDi in the fall of 2000 and in the winter and spring of 2001. SEC records indicate that Romney remained well into 2001 as a general partner in three of the four Bain funds that are involved in the DDi transactions."

* * *

Romney and Bain invested in DDi prior to Romney leaving for Salt Lake. Bain reportedly netted some $36 million when it sold the shares, nearly doubling its investment.

The fact that Romney signed documents for selling his own personal holdings in DDi — close to 200,000 shares worth over $4 million — at the same time that he did so for Bain Capital, could raise additional questions, as it suggests that he was likely familiar enough with the deal to be making personal investment decisions.

DDi was part of a broader investigation, which resulted in Lehman Brothers paying a $1.4 billion settlement in 2003.

I have to agree with Dave Weigel at Slate, Did the Romney Campaign Create the Swift-Yachting Story?:

What confounds me about the Bain Capital/Romney story's current iteration is that there's such a long, uncontested record describing Romney's ties to the company through 2002. In the Boston Globe's investigative biography The Real Romney, we get about half a page describing how the company's founder exited in 1999. The Olympics job came through. Bain Capital was worried that a Mitt-less company would fall apart. A hasty deal was struck to keep him on top of the firm's paperwork while he was on leave.

So who gave people the idea that Romney had completely severed ties with Bain in February 1999? The Romney campaign!

* * *

But here's the weird part. The articles being cited [by the Romney campaign] clearly said that Romney had left the company but would provide some advice when it was needed. Here, for example, is the article referred to in the second bullet point.

“Romney said he will stay on as a part-timer with Bain, providing input on investment and key personnel decisions. But he will leave running day-to-day operations to Bain's executive committee.” (Greg Gatlin, “Romney Looks To Restore Olympic Pride,” The Boston Herald, 2/12/99)

When you go back over the explanations the Romney campaign used to beat back Obama/Priorities USA attacks, you see them fumbling the 1999/2002 distinction like a retired NFL-er with busted knees.

"Romney said he will stay on as a part-timer with Bain, providing input on investment and key personnel decisions" is in direct contravention of his 2011 public financial disclosure form, under penalty of perjury, in which he stated:

“Mr.  Romney  retired  from  Bain  Capital  on  February  11,  1999  to  head  the  Salt  Lake Organizing Committee.  Since February  11,  1999, Mr. Romney has  not had any  active role  with  any  Bain Capital  entity  and  has  not  been  involved  in  the  operations of any Bain Capital entity in any way.”

The body of evidence available is overwhelming that Romney is lying in his 2011 public financial disclosure form. He is not going to be prosecuted for this felony. But the American people damn sure should make him pay the price for his shameless lying. And the corprate media villagers should stop providing him cover for his shameless lies.