Replies

An interesting event took place this week when Mr Henry Juszkiewicz appeared on Niel Cavuto in a fairly long interview. Curiously, neither made any reference to the Madagascar labor issue. There was discussion of the recent raid and the gross disruption and high handed tactics, but no mention of the on record government actions/words about having the wood worked abroad. Here I am on Free Republic having better access to a business problem than Niel Cavuto. Why did he overlook a major part of the story?

I can suggest two reasons.

One other poster on FR says "I call BS on this," regarding Juszkiewicz's comments that the government said in a pleading that Gibson's problems would go away if it used Madagascar labor. The pleadings in the civil case are of public record (I have them and have provided the source in may posts). Imagine how devastating it would have been if Gibson had actually produced the pleading. There would be a massive uprising and the quotes and pleadings would be in the news everywhere.

The problem is that the government didn't say what Juszkiewicz claims. He let his mouth get away from his brain and the facts. It sounded good at the time, but he can't back it up by producing the pleading. Juszkiewicz said it, he got mileage out of it, but he's not going to say it again because anybody with access to the pleadings can show he's wrong. Heck, his own attorneys probably told him not to make that statement again.

The second would be that the media hasn't been thorough in its research. I'll bet you that Cavuto didn't mention Gibson's use of a proxy "ultimate consignee" for these shipments either, did he? Or that 'use' of the East Indian Rosewood wasn't the issue, it was the form of the wood as imported? Or that C.F. Martin really isn't Gibson's main competitor, Fender is? Did he mention that, contrary to the blogs, there are other guitar makers in states without right-to-work laws?

There are simply too many facts to present, so Cavuto has to pick and choose.

And for the record, I think the government is probably wrong about the East Indian Rosewood blanks.