One of the biggest distortions in the corporate media is that Bear Stearns got a federal bailout. That is inaccurate. Bear Stearns is going out of existence, and their investors are getting pennies on the dollar.

What is happening is that JP Morgan Chase is getting Bear Stearns at a fire sale price because their is little short term capital available for Bear Stearns. The Bear Stearns building is worth more than the amount of stock offered by JP Morgan Chase.

After snatching up Bear Stearns in a stunning $236 million rescue deal, real estate industry sources say that JPMorgan Chase & Co. has a wealth of options with the firm's headquarters: it could sell the Bear Stearns building for up to $1.2 billion or even back out of a deal to build a new downtown headquarters and instead take over the firm's 383 Madison Avenue headquarters.

What the taxpayers are guaranteeing is at least $150 million in questionable Bear Stearns debt that originates from subprime mortgages. The mortgage-based paper is being backed up with our money on behalf of JP Morgan Chase (which assumes the risk by buying the other corporations), not Bear Stearns. One question you might ask is:

So what? They both are disgusting corporations.

Well, the so-what of all of this is that the media are spinning to keep the blame away from JP Morgan Chase, a viable corporation, rather than the defunct Bear Stearns. This is part of the general corporate favoritism of their media, and it also represents kissing up to a major advertiser.