Argument Credibility

Argument Credibility

The story that I found was at www.CNN.com reported by Elaine Quijano entitled, “AIG Outrage”. The claim that is being made is that AIG bonuses should not be allowed. In the fourth quarter of 2008, AIG lost 64 billion dollars. Subsequently, the U.S. government invested 170 billion dollars of taxpayer money into the company. AIG is in turn, spending a large portion of the money that was intended to be used to save the company, to pay 165 million dollars in bonuses to 400 of its top executives and senior employees.

I agree with the claims that state “The bailout is an outrage”.   Although AIG claims to be honoring contracts made with employees, these contracts were made before the company was eighty percent owned by the U.S. government.   Although I do understand that a contract is a legally binding agreement, contracts can also be re-negotiated.   Claims made by AIG CEO Edward Litty that, there was nothing that could be done about the bonuses and that the company risked loosing its top performers as well as a reference to possible legal consequences strike me as scare tactics aimed at convincing the government to allow AIG to continue business as usual.

The facts are that AIG lost 64 billion dollars in the fourth quarter of last year. The government agreed to a 170 billion dollar bailout to avoid the bankruptcy of one of the country’s biggest financial institutions. AIG is now pushing to pay 165 million dollars in bonuses to 400 of its executives.

This story was reported on a broadcast of CNN by reporter, Elaine Quijano. Although there were probably many writers for this story, these writers work for CNN which has been for many years, considered one of the most reliable news corporations.

In my opinion, the report was trustworthy and unbiased. While public opinion is strongly in one direction on this topic, the attempt to show both sides of the issue was evident....