At best, it must be an intern hoping for a chance at the mail cart. At worst?
This question, found here:
On CBS News Q&A site: Why were the Clinton's hit so hard on White Water but G.B.'s selling of stocks in that company in L.A. (identified in Michael Moore's scathing documentary, "Fahrenheit 911") was not investigated by the Attorney General's office? The film alleges G.B. sold his stock in the company just prior to it filing Chapter 7, thereby dodging, allegedly, a loss of $800K?
CBS Responds: Sorry. I have no idea what you're talking about. But some might dispute your calling the Moore film a "documentary." Journalists produce documentaries. The Moore movie is a political film with an unmistakably partisan point of view.
Well, there are a couple of things that jump out at me. I did a Google of the phrase, "bush sold stock chapter 7". I received "Results 1 - 10 of about 543,000 for george bush sold stock chapter 7. (0.13 seconds)", a sizeable number of hits I would believe. The VERY first three hits:
Bush book: Chapter -1- Archive
President George Herbert Walker Bush was born in 1924, ... (fraudulent) railroad
stock, Harriman sold most of the shares through the Kuhn Loeb company. ...
www.tarpley.net/bush1.htm - 34k - Cached - Similar pages - Filter
Bush book: Chapter -19- Archive
... when Fidelity Printing was sold, Bush cashed in his stock for $499600 in ...
George Bush's friend Henry Kravis raised money for his leveraged buyouts ...
www.tarpley.net/bush19.htm - 67k - Cached - Similar pages - Filter
CHAPTER 2 GEORGE W. BUSH'S EARLY YEARS THREE ARRESTS Three arrests ... Archive
He received $600000 worth of Harken Energy stock in return for his 14.9 percent
stake in Spectrum 7. When Harken Energy began to sputter in 1990, Bush sold ...
www.angelfire.com/ca3/jphuck/Book10Ch.2.html - 12k - Cached - Similar pages - Filter
A click onto, what a reasonable person might believe as a good starting point, link three:
In 1983, Bush was rescued from bankruptcy when Arbusto Energy was bailed out by a wealthy friend who owned Spectrum 7 Energy Corporation. Bush was named CEO and was given an annual salary of $75,000. He also received 1.6 million shares of Spectrum 7 for the 4,000 outstanding shares of Bush Exploration. However, two years later, the world oil market plummeted. Spectrum 7 posted losses of $400,000 just six months before Bush left, and the company's debt hit $3 million. Spectrum 7 was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy.
Wow. Even if one discounts the partisan - very partisan - tone, one can get the keyword "Arbusto Energy". Its Google results: "Results 1 - 10 of about 73,400 for Arbusto Energy. (0.39 seconds)".
Wow, redux. Now Google Arbusto Energy +"CBS News". Results: "Results 1 - 10 of about 504 for "Arbusto Energy" +"CBS News". (0.41 seconds)".
Five hundred four hits. I paged through them, there were plenty for me - or course I'm limited to my high school Jimmy Olsen days - but plenty enough for me to get beyond the "I have no idea what you're talking about" AND still have time to diss Michael Moore.
Of course, most folks who follow the news and aren't committed to after-school detention, might try the more obvious Google search, Harken Energy +"CBS News". Geez, look what this cat dragged in:
Results 1 - 10 of about 10,100 for harken energy +"cbs news". (0.38 seconds). Following this link:
CBS News | Bush: Economy's 'Coming Back' | July 23, 2002 09:28:59 Archive
... investigation into his sale of stock in his former oil company, Harken Energy
Corp. ... Mr. Bush sold his Harken stock for $848000 in June 1990, ...
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/07/15/politics/main515136.shtml - 59k - Cached - Similar pages - Filter
leads us to this:
Mr. Bush has been dogged in recent weeks by a decade-old Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into his sale of stock in his former oil company, Harken Energy Corp. And Vice President Dick Cheney's former company, Halliburton Co., is being investigated by the SEC for its accounting practices.
Over the weekend, Democrats renewed their calls for the president to released documents relating to his 1990 sale of Harken stock.
Maryland Democrat Paul Sarbanes, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, told NBC's "Today" show that "the president ought to lay out all the facts and let the country take a look at them."
He said that way, what he calls the "constant agitation" over the case could be put to rest. Mr. Bush sold his Harken stock for $848,000 in June 1990, two months before Harken reported big losses. Mr. Bush was a director of the company. The government's insider-trading inquiry into the sale, made when Mr. Bush's father was president, was closed with no action against Mr. Bush.
But White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Monday the administration doesn't intend to ask the Securities and Exchange Commission to release papers from its investigation into Mr. Bush's sales of Harken stock.
TIME ELAPSED to bring one from total ignorance: about 5 minutes.
For this, one, and only one, of those really witty, His-Girl-Friday, bon-mots is needed. Which would Dorothy Parker pick? Maybe something like, "Ouch". And on the CBS News website too. Doesn't CBS have any search tools? For their own website? Gosh, they don't even have to pony up for Nexus/Lexus fees.
By the way, thefreedictionary.com shows the definition of [film] documentary to be:
A work, such as a film or television program, presenting political, social, or historical subject matter in a factual and informative manner and often consisting of actual news films or interviews accompanied by narration.
That appears to me what Mr. Moore did. And who said it's wrong to have an opinion and present it on film? I mean, besides the GOP, Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney, Tom DeLay, those people with those cute little
"W, Still the President" stickers, Kim-Il Jong, all those not-under-oath oil executives, Fox (and all Fox fans), and those noon day sun Englishmen. I mean really, besides them who says its wrong to market your opinion?
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