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May 02, 2008

Call Me Irresponsible

The song “Call Me Irresponsible” was written in 1962 by Jimmy Van Husen and Sammy Cahn for Judy Garland to sing at a CBS dinner to celebrate her upcoming variety show and to poke fun at herself for being flaky. Later that year Frank Sinatra recorded it for his “Sinatra’s Sinatra” album and it became one of Old Blue Eyes’ biggest hits.

I claim to “write about the media – the good, the bad, and the irresponsibly ugly.” But being ugly and irresponsible depends on what you stand for and where you sit.

I was proud to have worked at CBS in the glory days of CBS News in the late 1960s and early 1970s and for NBC in the middle and late 1970s when Julian Goodman, former head of NBC News, was Chairman of NBC, then owned by RCA. I believed that broadcasting was about serving a community’s and the public “interest, convenience, and necessity” – it was a public trust first and profits are what allowed a broadcasting company to survive, thrive, and serve. When I was the general manager of radio stations, I believed that entertainment programming (primarily music) was a confectionary topping that made the medicine of news and editorials palatable – yes, we did editorials in those days and even endorsed candidates for local office (CBS and NBC were too timid to let the general managers endorse candidates for national office).

Starting in the late 1980s I was proud to teach for 10 years at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, the country’s first journalism school. I taught management, sales, and media economics courses that emphasized the concept that the goal of management and sales was to deliver revenue and profits in order to sustain the media’s mission as a public trust and serve as a vitally important vehicle for informing the polity so it could make good decisions about its government and its leaders – to protect our democracy, in other words.

Thus, for the media to be responsible, it meant that it must keep the public reliably informed about important issues, in my public-trust view.

But in the 1980s, the media industry was invaded by MBAs who were taught in America’s graduate business schools that they were primarily responsible to media owners, stockholders, to maximize their wealth – to maximize shareholder value. Agency theory and free market theory posted that managers were surrogates for stockholders, and that self-interest, as opposed to public interest, was proper because it lead to market efficiency.

These theories led to deregulation of the media, manager greed, disastrous mergers, conglomeration, unconscionably astronomical media executive pay, and celebrity news – to news as porn.

Thus, for the media to be responsible, it means that it must maximize the wealth of media executives and faceless institutional investors – the public be dammed – in the maximize-shareholder-value view. Or, as Marie Antoinette was incorrectly attributed as saying, “let them eat cake.” Or, as CBS CEO Les Moonves might say, “Let them watch ‘Survivor.’”

So, who’s irresponsible, the public-trust-first (PTF) people or the maximize-shareholder-value-first (MSVF) people? You know who’s right, but the MSVF people are winning and will continue to win as long as you watch television – the biggest offender.

Turn off your TVs and click on ads on The Huffington Post or JackMeyers.com, ad-supported websites where this blog appears, so that advertisers will know that in order to reach a very smart, well-educated, group of gorgeous people with high incomes, they have to buy advertising on sites that appeal to us.

Posted by Charles Warner at May 2, 2008 03:41 PM

Comments

Media Curmudgeon [TypeKey Profile Page] at May 5, 2008 11:09 PM writes:

Bruce Braun writes:

"You bring a tear to the eye...memories of earlier days at CBS, at least for me.

Joining CBS in 1972, I at least had a glimpse of what you loved about the 1960's there and was there for what happened next. On my first day in September of 1972, I really believed that I had joined the greatest broadcasting company on the face of the planet. I was humbled by what I believed was the true honor of being accepted into that company. I arrived at about the time equivalent to the Barbarians marching into Rome.
I wonder if Paley really ever thought about the "public interest, et.al" or if it was really coming from those around him: Stanton, Murrow, and the army of journalistic giants. Paley was a 1920's & 30's version of a trust-fund baby playboy. It was his father who had the cash and provided the money to launch young Bill and enabled is living large life-style.

After all, it was Frank Stanton who I thought really crafted the CBS image. It was Stanton who fought off the politicians and not Paley. If Paley was the founder, it was Stanton that made it all happen.

It was Paley who dumped Stanton after 40 years of service when he turned 65. It was Paley that cowed the board to make him the only exception to the (at the time) mandatory retirement age of 65.
It was Paley who became obsessed with achieving Wall Street acceptance and hired Arthur Taylor, the asshole beancounter from First Boston, who wore a homburg to look more mature.

It was Taylor that began hiring his army of beancounters and MBA's to create "processes" within CBS, while Paley stood idly by. Everything in CBS was then viewed through the lens of its profit potential and "exploitability".

It was Taylor who decided and Paley who went along with making CBS News a "Profit Center". Prior to that, CBS News was only responsible for delivering a world-class news product and was never a revenue generator in the same way as the entertainment or stations division folks were. There was NO connection or influence between news and entertainment. I think you call that journalistic integrity.

It was Paley's greed and business ego that allowed the walls to come down and news become just another division to deliver quarterly profits. Taylor was certainly no Stanton and without any prior experience in broadcasting. He was oblivious to what his actions started and the potential consequences might be. Standing up to big Tobacco or the government was not on the agenda anymore.

Taylor was the Mrs. O'Leary's cow of broadcasting. He kicked over the lamp that started the fire that burned down quality journalism and bred the Les Moonves, and Jeff Zucker's of broadcasting today.
It was Paley who eventually sold out to Larry Tisch for the bag of golden coins. When you think about it, Moonves and Redstone truly are just like Paley was."


Jesse Kornbluth [TypeKey Profile Page] at May 2, 2008 04:20 PM writes:

Is this a watershed moment?

For years, I have asked: Why do TV and advertisers court the red state, low-income audience? These people may be wonderful, but as a group, they're a month away from losing their credit cards. On the flip side.... Latte-drinking, Volvo-driving, Commie blue-staters --- you may not want to have a beer with them, but at least they can still buy stuff.

But year after year, with the exception of Apple advertising, the same vulgar programming and right-wing commentary and insulting commercials.

Now Charlie proposes that we vote with our feet --- click with our mouse, to be precise --- and take our business elsewhere. Well, why not? Were you getting the real news from [fill in the network blank?]?


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