Absolutely Punked: AP Publishes Fake Story About GE Repaying Treasury

Newsbusters ^ | 4/13/11 | Tom Blumer

[Nachum]

This is about as weak as it gets.

This morning as seen here (saved here at my web host for future reference), an unbylined 90-word Associated Press report at 9:57 a.m. told readers the following, in part:

Facing criticism over the amount of taxes it pays, General Electric announced it will repay its entire $3.2 billion tax refund to the US Treasury on April 18.

GE uses a series of foreign tax havens that the company says are legal and that led to an enormous refund for the 2010 tax year.

At 10:40 a.m., CNBC called BS on AP:

GE Rebuffs Tax Refund Report as 'Hoax'

General Electric called an earlier media report Wednesday that it would repay a $3.2 billion tax refund to the Treasury Department a "hoax."

Members of an activist group calling themselves the "Yes Men" claimed responsibility for the hoax, according to a report from Reuters.

Earlier Wednesday morning, the Associated Press reported that the U.S. conglomerate — using "a series of foreign tax havens" — would repay the "enormous" refund it received for the 2010 tax year.

Shares of GE, which is a minority shareholder in NBC Universal, the parent company of CNBC.com, slipped on the AP report.

[Spok]

Where are the quotes from Obama about the “fat cats who make too much money”?

[blackdog]

All the skills needed for journalism these days is an email account and a fax machine to reprocess and rebrand any information that shows up.

Simply amazing!

[JPG]

Hey, AP, what are your latest numbers on the vote for the WI SC.

[Blood of Tyrants]

The entire TARP was nothing but a low interest guaranteed loan by the government so that fatcats could unload crappy investments on the fed and take a huge paycheck.

[God luvs America]

bump

[theDentist]

General Electric called an earlier media report Wednesday that it would repay a $3.2 billion tax refund to the Treasury Department a "hoax."

TRANSLATION:

"This morning, unknown individuals falsely reported that General Electric would pay $3.2 billion to the Treasury Department. This is false. It is a hoax. Our CEO, Mr Jeff Immelt assured the board this morning that he has spoken with his good friend, President Obama. Together they agreed that GE has 'no intention' to pay a red cent to the US Treasury Department. And Mr Immelt also announced that GE and most of it's employees will donate the maximum limit to Obama's re-election campaign."

[ArmstedFragg]

Impossible. They need those billions for that fifty percent of the GM hybrid supply they promised to buy.

[JoeFromSidney]

Every one of the tax breaks that GE used was passed by Congress and signed by a President, for the specific purpose of encouraging companies to do (or not do) something. GE did those things, and took the tax breaks. Now people have the gall to complain that GE did what the government wanted, and got rewarded for it. Ridiculous. If you don't want people to use tax breaks, don't pass them.

[No Truce With Kings]

I saw the AP story before it was withdrawn. My first thought was WTF (and I don't mean winning the future)? Because for GE to do this would be to betray their fiduciary responsibility to their stockholders. Unnecessarily giving up $3.2 billion out of their corporate income would hurt those who invested in the company.

I was relieved when I discovered it was a hoax. The only way GE could have done this — without its executives facing potential jail time — would be for high-level corruption on the national and state levels several orders of magnitude greater than we have seen to date.