Editor’s Note: Dean Obeidallah, a former attorney, is the host of SiriusXM radio’s daily program “The Dean Obeidallah Show.” Follow him @DeanObeidallah@masto.ai. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion on CNN.

CNN
 — 

Last year, GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia spoke at a white nationalist event organized by Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes that caused Republican leaders to denounce her.

Last week, Greene’s Twitter account was temporarily suspended by the Elon Musk-headed platform over a tweet with a graphic referring to a “Trans Day of Vengeance,” as she denounced a planned transgender rights rally.

And come Tuesday, Greene has announced plans to protest in New York City when former President Donald Trump is expected to be arraigned on an indictment of more than 30 counts, calling the proceedings against him an “unconstitutional WITCH HUNT!”

But on Sunday, Greene was featured on CBS’ “60 Minutes” in an interview the long-running show promoted on Twitter with the tease: “Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, nicknamed MTG, isn’t afraid to share her opinions, no matter how intense and in-your-face they are. She sits down with Lesley Stahl this Sunday on 60 Minutes.” The images attached to this tweet by “60 Minutes” include Greene and Stahl walking through the US Capitol, taking a stroll outside and Greene showing Stahl something on her phone.

In the segment that aired Sunday night, Stahl noted the congresswoman had moved from the fringe to the GOP’s front row in two years despite a “sharp tongue” and “some pretty radical views” as well as “over the top” comments such as “the Democrats are a party of pedophiles.” Stahl also referred to video of Greene chasing a Parkland, Florida, school shooting survivor, still maintaining that the 2020 election was stolen and failing to criticize Trump over spending. (The interview was conducted before news of his indictment.)

But Stahl didn’t mention Greene spoke at a white nationalist event a year ago while a member of Congress or her extreme anti-Muslim views and her defense of January 6 rioters.

Criticism of CBS for amplifying Greene has been swift and well-deserved even before the program aired. Former GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois tweeted beforehand: “Wow. Insane that 60 min would do this.” (Kinzinger is a CNN senior political commentator.)

Journalist Molly Jong-Fast also slammed “60 Minutes” with the tweet: “Attention is currency and 60 minutes is spending its currency on the Jewish space lasers woman.” (Jong-Fast was apparently referring to Greene’s past claim that a massive California wildfire was started by “a laser” beamed from space controlled by a prominent Jewish banking family.)

David Hogg, who survived the 2018 horrific school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland and has since become an activist against gun violence, responded, “I look forward to your questions about why she thinks school shootings are fake and why she’s supported QAnon.”

Greene amplified the conspiracy theory — two years before being elected to Congress — that the Parkland shooting that took 17 lives was staged. And in 2019, Greene appeared on video confronting Hogg outside the Capitol when he was championing laws to save lives from gun violence, screaming that the then-teenager was a “coward.” She also called Hogg “#littleHitler” on social media.

Greene’s own tweet promoting Sunday’s segment was not filled with her typical smears of “fake news” when she doesn’t like the coverage. Rather, Greene urged people to tune in as she praised “60 Minutes” host Stahl (and misspelled her first name): “It was an honor to spend a few days with the legendary icon Leslie Stahl and talented crew @60Minutes.” Greene added, “Leslie is a trailblazer for women in journalism. And while we may disagree on some issues, I respect her greatly.”

Now, it is true that “60 Minutes” over its 50-plus-year history has featured what the show has dubbed “controversial” guests. These include a 2000 interview with Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, whose 1995 terrorist attack left 168 dead, including 19 children. And the show did a 1979 interview with Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Perhaps “60 Minutes” views Greene — who has repeatedly downplayed and even defended the January 6, 2021, attack plus called for the GOP to become the party of “Christian nationalism” — in the vein of its long list of controversial guests. (CBS had not responded to a request from CNN for comment at time of publishing.)

However, the choice of Greene as a guest instantly recalls the comments of then-CBS CEO Les Moonves during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign when he admitted that Trump’s candidacy “may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS.” Moonves added, “The money’s rolling in and this is fun. … (T)his is going to be a very good year for us,” concluding, “Sorry. It’s a terrible thing to say. But bring it on, Donald. Keep going.”

Moonves may be gone from CBS, but it appears his mindset continues at “60 Minutes.” And that may be good for “60 Minutes,” but it’s definitely not good for America.

A version of this story first appeared in CNN Business’ Before the Bell newsletter. Not a subscriber? You can sign up right here. You can listen to an audio version of the newsletter by clicking the same link.

New York
CNN
 — 

Americans have grown used to corporate executives treading the well-worn paths of the Northeast corridor to convene alongside elected officials in Washington, DC, and discuss geopolitics, policy and all that’s in-between.

In 2017, major CEOs from across the country came together to oppose North Carolina’s transgender bathroom law. In 2019, they called abortion bans “bad for business.”

After the deadly attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, many of corporate America’s biggest names denounced the rioters and pledged to halt their political giving.

Recently, more than 1,000 companies promised to voluntarily curtail their operations in Russia in protest of Moscow’s war on Ukraine.

Dick’s Sporting Goods stopped selling semi-automatic, assault-style rifles at stores and Citigroup put new restrictions on gun sales by business customers after the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, in 2018.

A year later, after mass shootings at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, and a nightclub in Dayton, Ohio, Walmart ended handgun ammunition sales.

Corporate leadership has long been vocal on the issue of gun control – in 2019 and again this past summer nearly 150 major companies – including Lululemon, Lyft, Bain Capital, Bloomberg LP, Permanente Medical Group and Unilever – called gun violence a “public health crisis” and demanded that the US Senate pass legislation to address it.

That’s why corporate America’s silence in the wake of the latest mass shooting at a school in Nashville is so jarring. The United States has come to rely on the increasing power of large corporations as political advocates.

But Yale professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a vocal advocate of corporate social responsibility who has a direct line to major CEOs around the globe, said that top executives are forlorn. Their previous efforts haven’t done much to push the needle on gun control legislation and without more backing, they don’t know what else they can do at the moment, he said.

Before the Bell spoke with Sonnenfeld, who runs Yale School of Management’s Chief Executive Leadership Institute, a nonprofit educational and research institute focused on CEO leadership and corporate governance.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Before the Bell: CEOs have been quiet about gun reform since the latest mass school shooting in Nashville, have you heard anything about plans to speak out?

Jeffrey Sonnenfeld: Where is everybody else? Where is all of civil society? CEOs are just one group of people and it’s like we’re turning to them to be our saviors on every topic. They’ve joined causes with valor and nobility but they can’t just be taking cause after cause as if there’s nobody else in society. The social change that happened in the 1960s wasn’t being led primarily by CEOs. Social changes really happened when we saw the interfaith activity of clergy locking arms and canvassing legislators. We saw campuses alive and aroused. Where’s all the student activism?

The CEOs are still the most active even if they’re less active than they were six months ago. They’re not there as hired hands of shareholders to fill the role of politicians and civic leaders. They’re there to join that chorus, but they don’t want to be the only one singing.

So is this what you’re hearing from top CEOs? Have they gotten tired of advocating?

I just got off of a CEO call on voting rights and this morning we had a forum on sustainability – CEOs are still the most active on these fronts. It’s the same thing on immigration reform. If a CEO was working an 18 hour day on a 12 day week, they still couldn’t address all of the issues that need addressing.

The nation’s CEOs are waiting for everybody else to join them. They don’t need to restate something they’ve already stated. They’ve jumped in the pool, where’s everybody else?

So what do you think has led to this complacency amongst Americans and the growing reliance on CEOs to advocate on our behalf?

They’ve taken a very strong stance and they’ve gone out further than the general public. They are where the general public is on surveys, but they’re not where the general public is on action in the streets. So we’re ready for others to now do something. Enough already on saying ‘what are the CEOs doing?’ Social capital is as valuable as financial capital. CEOs understand that in their soul, they want there to be social capital. They want there to be public trust, but they need the rest of civil society to join them. And that’s their frustration.

It sounds like CEOs are frustrated?

Yeah, they’re frustrated.

But don’t these CEOs hold the purse strings in terms of donating to powerful politicians?

You would think that, but since the 2020 elections much less of campaign contributions have come from big business. Since the 2021 run on the Capitol, a lot of businesses either had an official moratorium or they’ve given mere pennies to politicians. The common impression on the street that CEOs are controlling campaign purses strings is 100% wrong.

By CNN’s Chris Isidore

Tesla reported. a modest 4% rise in sales in the first quarter compared to the final three months of last year, despite a series of price cuts on its lower priced vehicles and talk by CEO Elon Musk about strong demand at those lower prices.

The first quarter also marked the fourth straight quarter that Tesla has produced more vehicles than it has delivered to customers. Some of that may be due to the ramp up in production at two new factories, one in Texas, the other in Germany, which opened last spring, and a lag between that increased production and sales.

Tesla said there was an increase in the number of its more expensive models, the Model S and Model X, in transit to Europe, the Middle East and Africa, as well as to the Asia Pacific region.

But it does mean that over the last 12 months Tesla has produced 78,000 more cars than it has sold, suggesting that talk of strong demand by Tesla executives may not be backed up by the numbers.

“Early this year, we had a price adjustment. After that, we actually generated a huge demand, more than we can produce, really,” said Tom Zhu, Tesla’s executive in charge of global production and sales. “And as Elon said, as long as you offer a product with value at affordable price, you don’t have to worry about demand.”

CNN
 — 

Three years after fleeing Iran, chess referee Shohreh Bayat fears being further ostracized after challenging the game’s governing body and its president, Russia’s former deputy prime minister, over her choice of clothing at a tournament in October.

Back in 2020, Bayat was criticized in Iran for not wearing the appropriate headscarf at the Women’s World Chess Championship in China and Russia. She refused to bow to the regime’s pressure but, as a result, has not returned home out of fear of punishment.

Now, three years on, Bayat has raised the hackles of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) and its president for wearing clothes in support of the Iranian protests and the people of Ukraine.

The 35-year-old Bayat, who now lives in London with her husband, recently officiated at the 2022 Fischer Random World Chess Championship in Reykjavik, Iceland, in October.

The tournament was another opportunity for Bayat to officiate some of the sport’s biggest stars, though it came at a difficult time as protests spread across her home country of Iran after the death of Mahsa Amini.

The 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman died in mid-September after being detained by the country’s morality police, allegedly for not abiding by the country’s conservative dress code, sparking outrage around a range of grievances with the regime.

“It reminded me of my own story,” Bayat told CNN. “So I decided to stand up for women’s rights in Iran. During the tournament I wore a t-shirt with the motto of Iranian people ‘WomanLifeFreedom’ and I wanted to stand with them.”

Bayat said that after the first day of wearing the t-shirt, a FIDE official asked her, unofficially, to not wear it.

In a statement sent to CNN, FIDE said that “arbiters at top events are required to dress in due decor and discretion” and that Bayat “disregarded direct instructions given to her to stop wearing slogans or mottos.”

According to Bayat, such regulations are not found in FIDE’s arbiter handbook and she says no dress code was given for the event in Iceland.

The arbiter’s handbook does say officials must “follow the dress code” and that they must be “dressed properly, helping to improve the image of chess as a sport.” CNN has reached out to FIDE to clarify the dress code that was expected for the October event.

Frustrated by the request to stop wearing the slogan, Bayat said she decided she was not breaking any rules so she wore it again the next day.

Bayat says she was once again asked by an official to take it off, only this time she was told the request came from FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich, who previously served as Russia’s deputy prime minister and who attended the tournament in Iceland.

Bayat said Dvorkovich never spoke to her in person about the t-shirt, despite being in the same room as her when she wore it.

Dvorkovich, however, messaged her on WhatsApp – messages seen by CNN – to request Bayat not use official FIDE events for “political purposes.”

Angered by Dvorkovich’s request, Bayat says she quickly responded but then deleted her “emotional” reply.

Bayat then informed Dvorkovich she would not wear the t-shirt the next day, though she wanted to do the “right thing.”

Given that FIDE’s charter states that it is “committed to respecting all internationally recognized human rights and shall strive to promote the protection of these rights,” Bayat said she decided she had not violated any rule.

“I thought carefully, and I realized that it is not me that was making chess political but Arkady,” Bayat said.

“I was following FIDE rules, but Arkady was breaking them by forbidding me to stand up for women’s rights in Iran.”

FIDE refuted any notion that politics played a part in Dvorkovich’s request to Bayat.

“We were not judging her views or her activism, but the platform and moment she chose for it,” FIDE told CNN.

The following day, Bayat, who has not seen her parents since leaving Iran over three years ago, said she bought a blue and yellow outfit and wore it in support of the Ukrainian people fighting against the Russian invasion, and also in memory of the 176 people that were killed when Iran said it unintentionally shot down a Ukrainian plane that crashed near Tehran in 2020.

She says nothing was said to her about the blue and yellow outfit but, since leaving the tournament in Iceland, Bayat told CNN that she hasn’t been invited to another FIDE event, despite the organization recognizing her as the best female arbiter in Europe in 2022.

Bayat said she was initially removed from the arbiter commission – a registry of all qualified arbiters – and, in a message seen by CNN, a top FIDE official told her it was because of her outfits in Iceland.

Her name is currently listed on the database and FIDE told CNN that Bayat was still very much in contention to officiate future events but that it has “more International Arbiters than world events, so we need to establish some rotation.”

FIDE President Dvorkovich was first elected in 2018 and was re-elected for a second term in August. Previously, the 50-year-old served as Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister between 2012-2018 following a stint as the Kremlin’s top economic adviser.

The Kremlin welcomed Dvorkovich being reelected as FIDE president last year, but he has always maintained his proximity to the Kremlin would not impact his work for FIDE and noted that he was one of the most senior establishment figures in Russia to question the war in Ukraine.

However, Bayat told CNN she believes Dvorkovich is not accepting criticism of Iran due to Russia’s links with the country – Iran continues to support Russia with military aid for the war in Ukraine.

She notes FIDE’s handling of the Iranian Chess Federation as further evidence of this.

Dvorkovich wrote a letter urging Iran to comply with FIDE’s regulations in 2020 after it allegedly told its players to not play against Israeli opponents.

The acting president of Iran’s Chess Federation responded, saying that Iran has constantly been in compliance with FIDE’s rules and statutes, and that the athletes themselves decide in which events to participate.

Despite being given a warning, Iranian players are still forfeiting games and FIDE has not yet taken concrete action.

“I find it extremely ironic that FIDE finds my human rights t-shirt political, but when the Iran Chess Federation repeatedly forces its players not to play against Israel, FIDE is silent and turns a blind eye to that,” Bayat said.

Asked by CNN whether it was confident Dvorkovich was working without pressure from Russian authorities in regards to Bayat’s support of the Iranian protests, FIDE said it had total and absolute faith in him.

“While we respect Ms. Bayat’s political stance and activities, any FIDE officials need to follow political neutrality while on duty, and of all the official positions one can hold, that of an arbiter is the one that demands higher standards of integrity, neutrality, and discretion,” FIDE said in a statement to CNN.

“No matter how noble or uncontroversial the cause is, doing activism from that role is inappropriate and unprofessional. She was indeed asked not to wear any slogans while acting as an arbiter and explained the reasons why.”

Bayat’s activism has attracted the attention of the biggest names in the sport after the Iranian chess referee tweeted about the incident again on Sunday.

US grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura recently tweeted “#WomenLifeFreedom #IStandWithUkraine” in response to a message about Bayat’s tweet.

Meanwhile, chess superstar Magnus Carlsen’s coach Peter Heine Nielsen tweeted: “The chess world needs to make up its mind. On which side do we actually stand?”

Bayat, who now also works in primary schools teaching chess, said the support she’s received has been “heartwarming,” as it was when she first sought asylum in England back in 2020.

“I was initially trying to support Iranian women. I think that’s important and it’s very nice to see other people are supporting me for doing the right thing,” she said.