Neil Cavuto Tries to Make Imus Care About the Rajaratnam Case

He was in no way required to come in studio this morning, but Neil Cavuto took it upon himself to pop in and explain to Imus (who, as it turns out, was totally disinterested) what Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam did that got him convicted yesterday on 14 counts of insider trading.
 
“He lied, and he profited off tips that he got illegally,” Cavuto, who has like 12 titles at Fox News and the Fox Business Network, said. Insider trading is, as Cavuto put it, “the oldest sin on the Street right now,” and one Rajaratnam insisted he did not engage in, despite evidence obtained via wiretapped phone conversations.
 
“I always wonder about, under the guise of trying to crack down on crime, the government invades your privacy,” Cavuto said. “I dare say I cannot imagine a trader, or a banker, or anyone in this city or anywhere being a little bit anxious about whether their phone calls are being tapped.”
 
The case that brought Rajaratnam down was built on tapped phone calls, even though Rajaratnam does not acknowledge directly in the conversations that he is doing anything illegal. However, Cavuto noted that telling an assistant to unload 500,000 shares at a time, as Rajaratnam did, “is a clear inference—at the very least—of how you skirt around the law of looking like you’re doing something.”
 
Imus pressed his guest on this issue for a while, but eventually admitted he had zero interest in it at all. Asked why he was covering it, Imus replied, “It’s my responsibility as a responsible broadcaster…I can’t even say that with a straight face.”
 
With a very straight face, Cavuto reported that Rajaratnam’s chances of winning an appeal are “zilch.” He’s been around a while, but Cavuto is always amazed by the big guys who are brought down by chump change, in this case tens of millions of dollars. “And yet it happens, again, and it’s going to happen again, and again, and again,” he said.
 
Then Cavuto and Imus fought over whether Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace is a good guest, with Imus insisting that he made Wallace into a good guest. “I think Chris Wallace was doing okay before he bumped into Don Imus,” Cavuto observed. “He is a wonderful human being, a class-A journalist. He does his dad proud, he does his network proud, and for you to call him a dope, or the ridiculous, childish, trivial comments you address toward him, insults me, insults this organization, insults all of humanity.”
 
Though he obviously had much to say about Imus’s dismissive nature, Cavuto was tight-lipped on Osama Bin Laden’s death (“He’s dead. I don’t care to add to the debate”) and whether Newt Gingrich has a chance of becoming President in 2012 (“I have no idea”). He was more forthcoming about his disappointment in Republicans in general.
 
“I hate their gutlessness,” he told Imus, adding, “They were elected to go after this government spending, and they’re already blinking, they’re already folding, and I don’t know why.”
 
Imus was similarly curious about a totally irrelevant matter: why were Cavuto’s initials emblazoned on the shirt he was wearing, like a wimpy kid at camp?
 
“This is a gift,” Cavuto said. “I’ll tell my daughter you said that. She hates you. She’s a big Stern fan.”
 
Aren’t we all?
 
-Julie Kanfer

Comments

[Doug]

ARE YOU NUTS!!!!!!!

IMUS mocks Chris Wallace for quest Ron Paul(star of Bruno movie)
instead Imus gives us A cup celeb right wing nut...SC Cup
come on cowboy

doug from Canada