MSNBC seems to find the Hostess closing amusing

[ClusterFreak]

Watched Richard Lui on MSNBC this morning, talking about the decision by Hostess to close up shop completely and toss 18,500 people out of work. The guy is making all these cute comments about loving Ding Dongs and Ho Hos and all this stuff, and what a shame that they are closing... but really, making light of the whole thing. No more Twinkies? Awwwww....

WTF is wrong with MSNBC? This is no joke...it is 18 thousand 500 people about to lose their jobs. If Hostess made car parts instead of Twinkies, would Lui still be making cute little jokes about it? Oh I really love mufflers and distributor caps, don't you? I can't believe the place is closing up! Such a shame....awww....

What an assmunch.

[AlGoreRhythms]

1. I've seen a lot of people on MSNBC and CNN making these same jokes.

All of them seem to love the "Twilight of the Twinkies" line.

[ClusterFreak]

5. That line could equally apply to the mental lightweights on the air at CNN and MSNBC. Unreal.

[AlGoreRhythms]

10. agreed

It's sad how nonchalant they are about more people being out of work.

[movonne]

16. This business was going to close strike or no strike..

[PD Turk]

20. +1

Harvested by a hedge fund

[ClusterFreak]

2. kicking my own thread cuz I made a good point

[ChisolmTrailDem]

9. Sorry CF, I can't stand Richard Lui and refuse to watch so

I didn't see the segment to which you are referring.

However, I will say that to joke about the loss of so many jobs is incredibly crass and that Richard Lui was involved is no surprise to me.

[thelordofhell]

3. And they don't even mention this............

Salary Increases at Hostess

Some creditors question Hostess pay raises approved in late July.

Brian Driscoll, CEO, around $750,000 to $2,550,000
Gary Wandschneider, EVP, $500,000 to $900,000
John Stewart, EVP, $400,000 to $700,000
David Loeser, EVP, $375,000 to $656,256
Kent Magill, EVP, $375,000 to $656,256
Richard Seban, EVP, $375,000 to $656,256
John Akeson, SVP, $300,000 to $480,000
Steven Birgfeld, SVP, $240,000 to $360,000
Martha Ross, SVP, $240,000 to $360,000
Rob Kissick, SVP, $182,000 to $273,008

[ClusterFreak]

8. I'm sure all of these fat raises were justified.

NOT.

Disgusting.

Especially the CEO....750 grand a year to more than 2.5 mill?

[bhikkhu]

15. Because its much easier to loot a company than it is to run it

Personally, I haven't bought a hostess product in ten years. Too sugary for my taste, and I remember the aura of stale oldness to their stuff, not fully camouflaged by whatever additives and preservatives kept them soft. A company making the same crap for so long, and the butt of jokes about how bad their stuff is for decades - no surprise that they went under.

If you want a counter-example of an old company keeping up with the times, look at Pepsi or Coke. When all the healthy fruit drinks became popular, they bought them up and integrated them into their distribution systems, Same with energy drinks. Same with the breweries when boutique beers became popular...

As said, its easier to loot a company than it is to run it, but changing times is no excuse for running a company into the ground. All those guys who took raises and did nothing should be ashamed.

[Arkansas Granny]

17. Those are some pretty hefty raises.

I'd say it's pretty obvious why their profits were down.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. The media has issues covering labor.

[jschurchin]

6. The employees should buy the fucking company out of bankruptcy

And become a E.O.C.

The management team in place now has driven this company into bankruptcy twice now. They are fucking incompetent idiots, and they want to blame this on the employees? Fuck them!!

[Hoyt]

7. It is sad, but Hostess has been in and out of bankruptcy a few times.

It's hard to tell whether the Teamsters Union is right about the Bakers union being wrong to strike. I think the company is just another victim of our changing economy and would have been selling off its assets regardless of a pending strike.

A shame, but so was the demise of buggy whip companies. The managers, as usual, didn't do anything to set things right and took whatever they could get away with.

[MineralMan]

11. There is no chance that jokes will not be made. Twinkies

have been the butt of jokes for a long, long time. If, in fact, Hostess does liquidate and all those people lose their jobs, other things will be said. For today, you can expect Twinkie and Snowball jokes to continue.

However, should anyone make a SuzyQ joke, I will join you in your condemnation of the media.

[AlGoreRhythms]

12. They better leave Suzy Q's out of this

[randome]

14. Only when the last person who remembers the taste of a Suzy-Q dies will Suzy-Qs truly be gone.

[Floyd_Gondolli]

13. Plenty are rejoicing here as well

[slackmaster]

18. If not for Twinkies, George Moscone and Harvey Milk might still be alive today

[Comrade_McKenzie]

19. Assmunch? Does Hostess make those as well? nt

[LeftinOH]

21. The RW dialogue has already started: Hostess closing = Obama's re-election.

Be prepared for it in the form of blind email forwards and lame Facebook posts. The meme follows that "big union" (union = Democratic Party) demands killed an American business. We know it's more complicated than that, but I'm already seeing the the dissemination of this simplistic breakdown.

[Brickbat]

22. It's a setup. When the company shuts down, liquidates, sets up a shell to buy the brand back and

reopens, they'll be greeted as heroes for saving the Twinkie. The workers, however, will be making much less.

[TheManInTheMac]

23. So did DU earlier today.