Why pretend you’re concerned about laying off workers? After all, it’s all about profits. We don’t want to let a couple thousand jobs and families get in the way.

Phillips plans to cut five percent of its 32,000 member workforce in its medical division worldwide. That means 1600 people are out of work.

So what does the company spokesperson say about it?

“We want to take all possible measures despite the sluggish economic scenario at present to maintain our profit levels and even improve them if possible,” said Arent Jan Hesselink.

And what did CEO Gerard Kleisterlee say earlier this month?

“Given the limited scope of the present economic scenario we have taken certain measures to maintain our profits.”

My, how heartfelt!

“It’s almost like seeing a guy show up at the soup kitchen in high-hat and tuxedo. . . . I mean, couldn’t you all have downgraded to first class or jet-pooled or something to get here?”

That quote from Rep. Gary Ackerman of New York sums up the idiocy of the chief executives of the Big Three automakers arriving in private jets to ask Congress for a $25 billion handout.

The worst part is, they probably didn’t and still don’t think they did anything wrong. After all, it’s one of the perks of the job.

Not to mention that on top of that perk and others, GM’s Richard Wagoner pulled down $15.7 million last year. Ford’s Alan Milally made $21.7. Chrysler’s Bob Nardelli only made $1 million, but don’t feel too sorry for him. He left Home Depot with a $210 million golden parachute.

Here’s hoping these clueless CEOs didn’t get the okay from their PR advisors before doing something so breathtakingly stupid and arrogant.

Speaking of arrogance, let’s talk about Elliott Spitzer, the disgraced former governor of New York. Rather than skulking off into the shadows of humiliation, he actually had the nerve to write an op-ed in the Washington Post offering advice on how to re-regulate Wall Street.

And, one week after he skirted a jail sentence by finding out he wouldn’t be prosecuted for soliciting prostitutes, Spitzer portrayed himself in the article as a wise sage and victim who was “scoffed at” for raising red flags about what was going on in the marketplace.

Elliott Spitzer a victim. Now that’s rich.

It was too juicy to resist—and MSNBC couldn’t and didn’t. Sarah Palin thought Africa was a country, not a continent.

Problem is, it was a hoax. The so-called McCain advisor quoted, Martin Eisenstadt, doesn’t exist. He’s the creation of a pair of filmmakers who say they perpetuated the joke to help them pitch a TV show based on the character.

Their motives aren’t as important as the fact that MSNBC aired the story without checking it out. Spokesman Jeremy Gaines admitted, “It had not been vetted. It shouldn’t have made the air.”

But it did. As consumers of news, whether Republican or Democrat, I think we should be concerned. As the pranksters said, the blame lies with the shoddiness of the traditional news media and the blogosphere.

It’s also a result of the bias of so-called “news” stations, whether conservative (Fox) or liberal (MSNBC). If the story had been about President Elect Obama instead of Palin, you can bet MSNBC would have checked it out before broadcasting.

And as for corrections or retractions — I haven’t heard near as much about MSNBC being fooled as I did about the original story. I bet half the country still believes it was true. Check out the MSNBC web site. Not a mention.

What knuckleheads are managing Sarah Palin’s run for vice president? How could any rational PR person or other staff member allow her to believe she was talking to French President Nicolas Sarkozy when in fact she was being punk’d by a Montreal radio station? When you can’t trust your staff, you’re in big trouble.

Yes, Palin should have figured it out herself a few minutes into the call, (“My wife is so hot in bed. She wrote a song for you.”) but the people who allowed her to take the call and be fooled set her up for ridicule.

The PR team recovered a bit after the fact by using a self deprecating sense of humor in this statement: “Governor Palin was mildly amused to learn that she had joined the ranks of heads of state, including President Sarkozy and other celebrities, in being targeted by these pranksters. C’est la vie.”

But Joe Biden’s team got the last laugh: “Sounds like the same people who didn’t vet Sarah Palin didn’t vet her calls.”