AIG speaks on Daily Kos - literally

Awhile ago an AIG media guy named Peter Tulupman responded to a post by one of the Front-pagers aka Contributing Editors at Daily Kos which, in turn, started the building of a list of questions for AIG. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Look what's happened now.

This interactive format is not typical for most companies, including AIG. Our communications to the public have generally been our SEC filings, press releases, and presentations to investors, industry analysts, and other members of the investment community. But we understand our company is in a very different position since we received support from the U.S. government, and we wanted to try something different to be more accountable to taxpayers.

We know that there are tough questions out there. Some questions we may not be able to answer, and if that's the case, I will try to explain why. Other questions may take time to answer, as we gather accurate information from proper channels.

Finally, we know many questions will revolve around the day-to-day decisions AIG makes as a business. AIG's top priority is to pay back the U.S. government's investment in AIG. To do that, we have to make the decisions necessary to run our business successfully. We know that our business rationale for some of those decisions may not always be accurately portrayed by some, and that's one of the reasons that we want to do this forum, to explain how AIG's decisions are in the interest of maintaining the value of its businesses and repaying taxpayers.

We appreciate this opportunity, and hope that we can contribute constructively to the conversation on Daily Kos.

Peter Tulupman
AIG Media Relations

Props to AIG for going where the questions are. Just a note of caution. Language on the blogs tends to be rougher than that normally sanctioned in polite company so turn down your profanity sensitivity meter and listen to what they're really saying.