It wasn’t so long ago that Michael Moore devoted an entire movie to nailing the CEO of a Big Three automaker.
Now he’s standing up for Detroit’s top brass, at least in comparison to East Coast financial titans.
On Wednesday’s episode of Countdown with Keith Olberman, Moore suggested that class might affect congressional attitudes toward automotive leaders seeking a federal bailout.
“When the three automaker chiefs went to Washington they were treated like errant school children and then sent back to Detroit to write an essay on ‘why we should get free cash,’” Moore told Olberman.
“When the Wall Street bankers and thieves came down here back in October, it was just the opposite. Nobody asked what they flew down on, and the hearing room looked like a cigar bar.”
Moore characterized Congress’s attitude toward the automakers: “Car guys show up from the Midwest … ‘What’s this, manufacturing? What do you guys do, you build things?… We just like the guys that just make money off their money.’”
Moore’s big break came in 1989 with the documentary “Roger & Me,” his account of the economic devastation of Flint, MI, after General Motors cut thousands of local jobs. Throughout the film, he tried unsuccessfully to speak with Roger Smith, who was then GM’s CEO.
Moore emphasized Wednesday that he wasn’t defending the chief execs. “Frankly, any money given to the current management is going to be money that is just flushed down the toilet,” he said.
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1 Comments
#1. Rose Colored Glasses 12.07.2008
Your a fat ass. You fit in with the hope and change idiots. You do know that the Big 3 have already consulted bankrupcy lawyers, so this bailout is no longer an option.
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