Media Curmudgeon

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June 6, 2004

Sunday, June 7, 2004. Vacation.

Sunday, June 7, 2004. Vacation.
I want to let the few friends who read the Media Curmudgeon Blog know that Julia and I will be in Spain for two weeks, and then I have to go to Seattle and Colmbia, MO, so I won't be blogging until after the first of July. Furthermore, I think those of you who read the blog need a little vacation, too.

Check in the first week of July--I'll let you know about our reception in Spain (if we get back).

Posted by Charles Warner at 8:15 PM | Comments (0) | Print |

Sunday, June 7, 2004. Resignations?

Sunday, June 7, 2004. Resignations?
There were two big resignations this week. George Tenet resigned as head of the CIA and Mel Karmazin resigned as president and chief operating officer of Viacom. In the world of politics and government, Tenet's resignation was huge news, but no bigger than Karmazin's resignation was in the world of media.

By all accounts Tenet was a pretty good CIA director and boss who served under both Clinton and Bush. The big question is, "Did he resign voluntarily or was he forced out?" I don't suppose we'll ever know the real truth, but the circumstantial evidence would indicate that he got a nudge for political reasons during this close re-election year for Bush. What did Tenet do wrong? He was a loyal man who fed his boss the information his boss wanted to hear--no bad news, or rather no news that would contradict information that Bush had already decided to believe, no matter what evidence to the contrary was delivered. So Tenet leaves in a cloud and with a less-than-generous government pension after years of loyal service.

I wonder if Tenet looks at Dick Cheney in the White House, the man who, as much as anyone, pushed the Iraq war and helped close Bush's mind to anything but what he wanted Bush to hear, and and asks why he (Tenet) had to go and Cheney, who gets paid $198,000 a year by Haliburton, doesn't? It doesn't seem fair, and, of course, it isn't.

By all accounts, Karmazin was a horrible, screaming boss who laid waste to people but who also increased CBS's and then Viacom's bottom line to the delight of Wall Street and most stockholders. The same big question is, "Did he resign voluntarily or was he forced out?" I don't suppose we'll ever know the real truth with Karmazin either, but the circumstantial evidence would indicate that he got outmaneuverd by Viacom chairman and chief executive officer, and major stockholder, Sumner Redstone. It was no secret in media circles that Redstone and Karmazin hated each other and that Krmazin was far from a loyal employee. Karmazin's employment contract had some highly unusual clauses in it that "protected Mr. Karmazin from meddling by his bosses. Along with standard clauses assuring him against any lessening of his authority or a move of company headquarters, he was shielded from second-guessing," according to a story in the New York Times Sunday Business section June 6 by Patrick MeGheehan. People don't have a contract like that if they think they can trust their boss. Karmazin knew he couldn't trust the crafty Redstone, and Redstone knew that regardless of a contract, he would find a way to get rid of the arrogant, non-trusting and untrustworthy Karmazin (not that Redstone is an icon of humility; he probably has an ego even bigger than Karmazin's, but he's much richer, so, of course, he wins).

I suspect the wiley Redstone carefully picked the timing of inserting his daughter Shari into the Vicom picture to meddle at a time when Viacom's stock was languishing--not meeting Wall Street's expecations. Redstone knew that inserting his daughter into Viacom as an "observer" would make Mel go ballistic. I'm sure it did, and I suspect Shari and her father put the screws on Mel, especially because of his nasty style, CBS's Super Bowl tasteless, breast-bearing half-time show (co-produced by Viacom's new Co-COO Tom Freston's MTV and new Co-COO Les Monnves's CBS), his defense of Howard Stern (one of the few things he did right), and his take-no-prisoners management style. So, Mel got fed up and quit, knowing full well the details of his contract--that he could get a full payout package if he quit, which is also highly unusual, again indicating that Mel was shrewd enough to know that Redstone would eventually screw him somehow.

So for being a nasty, disloyal boss, Karmazin got a $30 million buy-out package, which does not include $35 million in stock options he exercised last year or about $100 million in options he has left. I can see George Tenet reading the New York Times story (see above for link) and saying, " I should have gone into the media. It doesn't seem fair."

No, George, you shouldn't have gone into the media. As dirty as government politics is, media politics is much worse, it just pays better for putting out a lot of crap that debases our culture and society (some media are good--The New Yorker, The Altantic, NPR, e.g.). You tried to warn the president of the United States about the threat of Al Qaeda and to protect our nation, but that's not worth a lot in today's upside-down sense of material values, but it's better for our society than "My Big, Fat, Obnoxious Fiance."

I think Tenet deserves as much money as Karmazin (but also that Karmazin should get a whole lot less). Karmazin fired several good friends of mine who were excellent, honorable broadcasters because they didn't ethusiastically feed him the wrong information (unrealistically high revenue projections) that he wanted to hear. Tenet gave Bush what he wanted to hear, but it didn't save him. Like Karmazin, Bush needed scapegoats to blame for poor performance (stock price for Mel and popularity polls for the shrub).

So, I suppose the discouraging moral is: Go into the media, be disloyal, put out entertaining crap, get filthy rich, resign, and maintain a good reputation; go into the government, be loyal, put out information that doesn't agree with the boss, get blamed for not distributing stronger warnings, be forced to resign, go away poor, and leave with tarnished reputation.

Posted by Charles Warner at 4:51 PM | Comments (0) | Print |