Thanks to THEGRUBSPOT.com for this post:

How ironic. The paper that led the crusade against excessive executive pay and bonuses, is just as guilty as those that it regularly assails. The New York Times with over $1.3 billion in debt and only $34 million left in the piggy bank managed to pay some hefty bonuses to top executives.

According to the Huffington Post: ” According to the New York Times proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, corporate president and CEO Janet L. Robinson received a total compensation package valued at $5.58 million in 2008, up well over a million from the $4.14 million she received in 2007, and the $4.4 million she received in 2006.

Robinson’s $1 million base salary has remained the same for three years. In 2008, Robinson’s total compensation included, in addition to her base salary: $1.6 million in stock awards, $1.5 million in options, a $35,000 bonus, $562,500 from the non-equity incentive plan, $898,171 from the “Change in Pension Value and Non-qualified Deferred Compensation Earnings,” and “other compensation” of $46,368.

A number of NYT staffers contacted said that there was considerably more resentment voiced on the newsroom floor, and in newspaper guild meetings, about Robinson’s pay than about compensation awarded to Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the NYT board chairman and publisher.

Staffers noted that even though Sulzberger received bonuses and other compensation more than doubling to $2.4 million his base salary of $1,087,000, his total compensation package has declined substantially over the past three years from $3.4 million in 2007 and $4.4 million in 2006. In addition to his 2008 base salary, Sulzberger’s total compensation included a bonus of $38,045, stock awards of $54,443, option awards of $29,832, a non-equity compensation plan distribution of $597,850, a change in pension plan valuation and non-qualified deferred compensation worth $559,826, and $48,878 in “other compensation,” according to the proxy.”

Wow. Nothing like hypocracy. Where is President Obama’s outrage? Why are we supposed to be upset when Wall-Street execs, make millions, but the heads of a newspaper that continues to support the current President is let off the hook.

A double standard?

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So we have Barack Obama out there just outraged over the bonuses paid to AIG workers, after the company had already received bailout money from the US government, yet no outrage on the wasted money so that he can appear on the Jay Leno show? It costs about $75,000 an hour for Air-Force One, and how much did all the security cost to sterilize the route to get to Leno, and all the other associated costs? All that so that we can hear the Prez. without his security blanket, umm I mean teleprompter, make fun of special Olympians.

Where is the outrage? Can you imagine if former President Bush made a comment about the Special Olympics? Front page in the New York Times, I would imagine. But with Obama, not a mention. Double standard????

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Aaron Katsman
IsraelNewsletter.com

What could a horse with a 38-1 shot of winning, and a small country with only 7 million people surrounded by enemies, have in common? The answer: They are both longshots and underdogs that have prevailed and flourished despite predictions to the contrary. For those not familiar, the horse Da’ Tara, won Saturday’s running of the Belmont Stakes, spoiling Big Brown’s attempt at winning horse racings triple crown. Big Brown was considered a lock to be the first horse to capture the elusive triple crown in 30 years. Instead, he was upstaged by a horse that no one had paid any attention to.

Likewise, the tiny country of Israel, has flourished despite predictions of destruction. In a great article in The New York Times, Thomas Friedman asks the following question: “Question: What do America’s premier investor, Warren Buffett, and Iran’s toxic president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have in common? Answer: They’ve both made a bet about Israel’s future.” (Continue »)

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