Capital finance, as you can imagine, did the worst, but you know what should be a true embarrassment to GE? NBC Universal -- income plummeted over 40% at the media business. I know that selling content in today's digital economy is a downright drag, and NBC, the major network, has to put up with a very competitive cable landscape. Disney's (NYSE: DIS) ABC, News Corp.'s (NASDAQ: NWS) Fox, and CBS (NYSE: CBS) all have to deal with a challenging advertising market. But come on, GE management should be screaming at NBC Universal execs to get with the program.

I shared my anger over NBC Universal in a piece I wrote about GE's Q1 report, though my tone then was a bit more forgiving in terms of the conglomerate's earnings performance. Well, this time around, I'm not feeling as accepting of GE's profit declines. I guess I expected things to be a little better than they were.

Perhaps I was fooled by the recent rally in the major indexes. Perhaps I forgot that the economic contraction has not gone away yet. Perhaps I was too hopeful that the market would discount better times ahead for GE. Whatever it was, I found myself disappointed after perusing the press release.

When it comes to GE shares, my intent for now is to hold my long-term position. The shares I own are definitely way under their cost basis, but I want to see if I can remain patient and ride out the recession with them; furthermore, I do have at least a little hope that, when things get better, the dividend will rise again.

For those of you who may be trading GE, if you bought them at much lower levels than Friday's close of $11.65, I'd consider booking profits. And to those who haven't initiated a position in GE yet, I'd probably wait to see what the price action brings in the next week or so. See how the market feels about the Q2 numbers after it's had some time to digest them.

Disclosure: I own Disney, GE; positions can change without notice.