Network news broadcasts give scant coverage to Frist stock scandal
Despite having found the time to cover Kate Moss's purported cocaine use and to put one of its correspondents in a wind tunnel to demonstrate the effects of hurricane-force wind, ABC's World News Tonight has yet to mention the brewing scandal over the sale of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's (R-TN) stock in HCA Inc., the hospital chain founded by Frist's father, just two weeks before a bad earnings report caused the stock price to drop sharply. The nightly news broadcasts of CBS and NBC didn't do much more, both giving the story brief mentions on September 23.
Since September 19, when Congressional Quarterly quoted a Frist aide acknowledging that Frist had ordered the trustee of his blind trust to sell all of his, his wife's, and his children's HCA stock, the Associated Press picked up the story September 20, followed by The New York Times (September 21), The Washington Post (September 22), and the Los Angeles Times (September 24).
The AP reported on September 23 that federal prosecutors had served HCA with a subpoena for documents related to the sale of Frist's stock, and officials from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had contacted HCA to informally request the same documents. The AP also reported that Frist's office had been contacted by both the SEC and federal prosecutors.
Catching Frist in an apparent lie, The New York Times reported September 24 that in a statement to the National Journal two years ago, Frist had denied knowing whether his blind trust still held HCA stock, although Senate ethics rules require the manager of a blind trust to inform the owner if all of an asset is sold. Moreover, the AP reported September 24 that in a January 2003 television interview, Frist also denied knowing whether he owned HCA stock, although his trustee contacted him at least three times in 2002, informing him of transfers of HCA stock into his trust.
As of September 26, ABC's World News Tonight has yet to cover the Frist story, although the program devoted broadcast time on September 21 to reporting on model Kate Moss's purported cocaine use. On September 23, World News Tonight featured a segment in which ABC News correspondent Jake Tapper reported from inside a wind tunnel to demonstrate the effects of hurricane-force winds on the human body.
CBS' Evening News gave passing mention to the Frist story on September 23 but did not report the subpoena of HCA documents by federal prosecutors or the informal request for documents by the SEC. CBS also failed to report that Frist's office had been contacted by federal prosecutors and the SEC. NBC's Nightly News also briefly covered the scandal September 23, reporting the prosecutors' subpoena and the SEC's document request, as well as the contact between Frist's office and federal officials. As of September 26, however, none of the networks' nightly news broadcasts has reported that Frist was caught in a lie regarding the extent of his knowledge of his blind trust's contents.
From the September 23 broadcast of CBS Evening News:
BOB SCHIEFFER (anchor): Federal investigators are looking into Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist's sale of stock in HCA, a giant hospital company founded by his family. Frist had his blind trust sell all his shares in June, when the stock was near its peak. Then two weeks later, a disappointing earnings forecast drove the stock price down. Frist's office says the senator had no inside information when he ordered the sale.
From the September 23 broadcast of NBC Nightly News:
BRIAN WILLIAMS (anchor): Investigators are looking into Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's sale of stock in a hospital operating company founded by his family. Soon after Frist sold his shares, the company issued a disappointing earnings forecast. That drove the stock down by about 15 percent. Frist's aides say the senator traded using only public information. They say prosecutors and the SEC have contacted them but that Senator Frist has not been subpoenaed. The company, however, says it has.
All hurricane/all the time coverage will be the marching orders of the day for the MSM until the next missing blonde cheerleader, small child or natural disaster of any kind comes along. The media monster is in slow, grinding spin mode, with the ultimate goal of creating the illusion of competence by the federal government in their ability to manage crises of this magnitude. LA state and local officials will recieve an unfair share of the blame, the feds will skate, TX officials will be canonized.
Meanwhile:
-the Frist scandal is ignored.
-billions in no-bid contracts, done on a handshake, are flowing out to the chosen few.
-weren't we in a war somewhere or something?
-Cindy who?
-Chinese,Arab bankers keep floating the loans to US
-another clear indication to the rest of the world of what a sorry state we're in.
You forgot the Sept 24 protests on your list. AP reports that 100,000 people showed up, yet there's "nothing happening" in Washington.
Agreed. I thought about it on the way home from work. I knew it was happening and was curious about numbers, etc, but nary a peep to be heard anywhere on Sat or Sun.
Seeing this clip got me wondering. How much longer before people like Brian Williams, Bill Maher, George Galloway and Jack Cafferty are labelled enemies of the state?
NO SEX - NO STORY - NO BODIES - ITS BORING - NO SOUNDBITE - CAN'T FIT - NO EASY TO HATE BAD GUY - THE MEDIA QUITS
If it bleeds it leads...
You need to add to that list NO CELEBRITY; it was a big deal with Martha Stewart, but not with Frist.
At least Frist isn't a hearbeat away from the presidency.
And Mr Rove's treachery is also in the backburner. This administration and it's minions are going down in history books as the most expensive corrupt drunken sailor event since 1796 !!! Imagine if Sen Frist was a democrat in these shark infested waters !!!
I've studied the video of Frist for about 10 minutes. It's obvious to me that he is guilty...
You win the internet!
That's internets.
The questions surrounding Frist just prove what I remember reading somewhere long ago -- "When Democrats get in trouble, it's about sex...when Republicans get in trouble, it's about money."
What really burns my backside about Frist and others like him is that they're only too eager to criticize their opponents for their supposed lack of ethics when their own hands are just as dirty, just in a different way. Do I hear glass shattering? Methinks I do...
Apparently the Republican definition of "scandal" is limited to sex. Ethical lapses in fiscal and geopolitical issues are just "good policy".
sorry, but the hurricane is more important than a stupid lying Senator and his stock purchases. Who cares about him anyway.
"sorry, but the hurricane is more important than a stupid lying Senator and his stock purchases. Who cares about him anyway."
I'm sure they can squeeze a little more info in if they really wanted to, hurricane notwithstanding. Who cares about Kate Moss's cocaine use?
has anyone looked at the activity of this stock? look at the weeks immediately preceding frist's sale.
[link to finance.yahoo.com] (find June 05 and work backwards.)
notice how shortly before frist's sale, the president and many senior officers all exercise and sell millions of dollars worth of shares. but after June, there is essentially zero activity.
i don't know about you, but if i owned a quarter million shares of any company, not only would i pay very close attention to it, but in particular i'd watch insider trade execution, particularly at end of quarter as financials are run. if the management--who are primarily compensated through equity--are taking their money, i would, too.
this does point out an obvious lie that frist "didn't know" he still owned HCA. but that frist's sale happened AFTER the inside sales, rather than BEFORE makes me wonder if this is criminal activity or being aware of one's investment?
if he did know in advance about poor financials, then he knew enough to wait until after the management had made their moves so he could excuse himself as indicated above. if he didn't have inside knowledge, then he (or an advisor) was savvy enough to watch management activity and follow their cue.
which leaves the question, why dump all of it? my guess is that this clears out his house for a presidential campaign.
why is there no mention of the 1.7 billion in fines and refunds hca paid the government for defrauding medicare. does anyone seriously think a democrat could be involved in something like that and the press ignore it?
i'm unclear on how being a minority shareholder in a company (granted, one founded by your family) makes one liable or drives policy? can you explain or link to something on this? i'm curious.
uber, insider trading has nothing to do with policy. it goes like this, you own shares in a company and you're on the board. you hear bad earnings are on the way. you dump your shares on some unsuspecting person and the report comes out and that person has lost money because he didn't have your knowledge.
Just a guess but I think ubermonkey was referring to your comment about the fines paid for the companies malfeasance. Uber is probably just a bit curious how that is germane to Frist owning stock in the company. It could be inferred that one was saying that all investors are responsible for company decisions.
yes, thanks ben.
Even the head of the SEC has recused himself to avoid an appearance of impropriety. If only Frist understood the importance of not creating an appearance of impropriety. His greed got the best of him at the expense of his political future. He saved a few million with a highly questionable sale that screams insider trading. He lost the ability to compete for the Presidency. How is he going to explain his conduct to the average American citizen who doesn't have one tenth of that much money to lose. So much for family values, or any values for that matter.
Frist, DeLay, Ney, Cunningham, Rove, Safarian, Abrahamoff. The New Hampshire GOP phone jamming scandal. No bid contracts for Halliburton with millions in cost overruns. Torture. Manipulating science to advance a political agenda. Rewarding incompetence while punishing wistleblowers. The justice department backing off big tobacco. Political hacks holding up Plan B at the FDA. The list goes on and on and on. It fairly boggles the mind. One has to wonder how thoroughly corrupt the GOP is. The number of high ranking GOP politicians being investigated, hopefully ultimately indicted and convicted is unprecedented. So much for the Republican's promise to restore integrity to government. Of course, most of them don't know the meaning of the word. And the MSM ignores most of it.
Could this scant coverage be a sign of how the media will cover the outcome of the Patrick Fitzgerald investigation (if there is one)? Wolf kotenberg really made a good point in an above post: "Imagine if Sen Frist was a democrat in these shark infested waters !!!"
The hypocrisy is tremendous, it is really sad our media is so perverted with the coverage of soap opera like subjects as Kate Moss etc.. Thanks aqualung for pointing out the unprecedented number of GOP under investigation, their efforts to silence critics is very troubling. It will be the same old spin, liberals hate Frist and are just whining because they are jealous he is in a position of power. Limbaugh and others railed about Martha Stewart to no end and now they will spin their way around the Frist stock sale.
If the Democrats can't get their own $50million Ken Starr for anything thus far - yellow cake, hollow claims linking Saddam & 911, the fake reporter, etc., - then this comparative pimple of a story will soon fade.
By the way, did the HCA stock not first go UP after the Medicare giveaway??
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Hmm. Is there a reason things are as they are?