Balls by Nancy Ohanian



Were you excited when the reactionary Business Roundtable announced last week that their members don’t just care about shareholders-- but they also care about customers, workers and society ? That was the way, long long ago, we ran Warner Bros Records. Major decisions always went through a filter of how it would impact our artists, our employees, our customers, society and our shareholders. It felt good being part of the management team of a company with that kind of an outlook.





L.A. Times' business columnist David Lazarus something smelled fishy when the According to' business columnist David Lazarus something smelled fishy when the Business Roundtable press release went out. He spoke with Colorado professor of propaganda Kenneth Osgood about it, who told him this attempt to sound like the we’re-all-in-this-together messaging that emerged from corporate America during the Great Depression and New Deal, as a raft of regulations targeted companies’ most egregious and self-serving practices, caused some skepticism. "I raised my eyebrows really high when I saw this," he told Lazarus. "It seems pretty obvious that CEOs are trying to head off growing public pressure on a number of fronts, including how much they’re paid and taxing the rich. Basically, they’re worried about undoing all the things that the Trump administration has done for them."

They emphasized that this is a big deal because past pledges placed shareholders first, with the general idea being that if shareholders are doing well, everyone is doing well.



You’ve seen that sentiment before: “What’s good for General Motors is good for America.”



Now we’re seeing a more populist flavor of corporate propaganda. The message today is that what’s good for General Motors (and GM customers, employees, suppliers, communities and shareholders) is good for America.







“There seems to be a concern among the CEOs that they’re becoming the bad guys,” said Nicholas J. Cull, a professor of public diplomacy at USC who focuses on propaganda studies.



“This suggests that the business community is expecting blowback from their policies, and they’re trying to get ahead of it,” he said.



It’s a Wonderful Life when the movie opened in 1946. Executives were aghast at the depiction of Old Man Potter, the banker, as a He said the latest messaging reminded him of how business leaders responded towhen the movie opened in 1946. Executives were aghast at the depiction of Old Man Potter, the banker, as a greedy, coldhearted villain



“They wanted people to know that they weren’t really like that,” Cull said. Ensuing propaganda focused on all the good things bankers do for society.



The Business Roundtable ran the same playbook by featuring the sentiments of a number of individual CEOs along with their general statement-- a clear attempt to humanize an otherwise dry document.



“This new statement better reflects the way corporations can and should operate today,” Alex Gorsky, CEO of Johnson & Johnson , was quoted as saying. “It affirms the essential role corporations can play in improving our society when CEOs are truly committed to meeting the needs of all stakeholders.”



Margaret Peacock, a history professor at the University of Alabama who studies propaganda, said the Business Roundtable is indulging in “a clear and pretty heavy-handed attempt” to obscure reality.



“In the marketing world, they call this ‘Everyman’ propaganda,” she said. “Sure, Alex Gorsky has a 50-foot yacht, but darn it, he cares about communities.”



The most striking thing about the Roundtable’s statement is its near-total lack of specifics. Instead, the CEOs serve up vague, noncommittal pledges to do the right thing. For example:

• “We will further the tradition of American companies leading the way in meeting or exceeding customer expectations.”

• “Investing in our employees ... Compensating them fairly and providing important benefits.”

• “Supporting the communities in which we work. We respect the people in our communities and protect the environment by embracing sustainable practices across our businesses.” When will workers receive fair compensation and important benefits? The statement doesn’t say. Nor is there any mention of reducing CEO compensation, which is Exhibit A for many people when discussing executive greed run amok.



...Compensation for CEOs increased by 940% from 1978 to 2018, while pay for the average worker rose by a miserable 12% over the same 40-year period, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

Adam Winkler, a law professor at UCLA who specializes in how companies are run told Lazarus that "At the end of the day, businesses exist to make money," which made him think that "the Business Roundtable is telling us what we want to hear, not what CEOs actually believe. The proof, of course, is in the pudding."





Jacobin Pudding? Chocolate? Oh, that reminds me... I have to buy a couple of bananas so I can turn this morning's leftover shake into a frozen pudding for tomorrow. But the real pudding here, is inherent in the labor plank Bernie released for his platform last week. Now that is pudding and medicine combined into one-- and is exactly what has the Business Roundtable CEOs shaking in their Gucci loafers and their Berlutti oxfords . Liza Featherstone, reporting for wonders why, with the best labor plank ever, unions have been reticent to endorse Bernie, let alone plutocrats and oligarchs. Bernie, she wrote, "just unveiled the most pro-union platform of any major presidential candidate in decades. At this point, any union that ends up endorsing one of his opponents in the primary over him would be enacting a straight-up Mad Tea Party scenario, as if a coalition of endangered species-- say, the giant kangaroo rat, the red wolf, and the fruit bat-- were to endorse Trump, who has been steadily weakening protections for such animals. Citing the high correlation between declining union membership and rising inequality, as well as the impact on worker safety, healthcare, and retirement security, the Sanders campaign has outlined a clear and specific way to stop the bloodletting of the American labor movement by making it much easier for workers to join unions-- and by vastly increasing unions’ negotiating power."