A concerted effort by the White House to tarnish the image of a particular entity along with a compliant mainstream media can be very effective. Just take a look at what a [1]recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll revealed.
According to the poll, Toyota (NYSE: [2]TM) had a 31 percent approval rating versus only a 4 percent approval rating for the investment bank giant Goldman Sachs (NYSE: [3]GS). What is curious about that result? The [4]National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has linked Toyota to 52 deaths due to acceleration problems. Compare that to [5]the charges against Goldman Sachs from the Securities and Exchange Commission, [6]which according to Taesik Yoon of Forbes Media will be much more difficult to prove.
A recent Business & Media Institute analysis of the coverage of Goldman Sachs as a Wall Street boogeyman found that the broadcast network news coverage (ABC, CBS and NBC) gave a lot of coverage to Goldman Sachs and the circumstances [7]surrounding an SEC investigation. In fact, they mentioned it 37 times.
Trish Regan, fill-in co-host for CNBC’s May 13 “Power Lunch,” noted this in a segment about the poll.
“It is pretty startling, when you look at these numbers and you realize, you know – people lost their lives as a result of
However, the push for financial regulation by attacking Wall Street, in particular Goldman Sachs, isn’t much of a battle according to CNBC Washington correspondent John Harwood. He explained neither is polling all that favorably and in the end, financial regulation reform would likely pass.
“This is a fight between two weaklings – 98-pound weaklings,” Harwood said. “You know, nobody has got healthy poll numbers and on – as for financial regulation reform, this has been in train for a long time. It is going to pass.”