Media Curmudgeon

AOL Reorgs in Preparation For What?

2004-11-12T18:42:00.000-05:00

This past week AOL and its parent company Time Warner (once upon a time AOL was the parent and Time Warner was the child) made several announcements. Why? The previous week AOL announced it was laying off 700 people and had repositioned AOL.com as a portal that would compete with Yahoo. At the beginning of this week Time Warner announced it was putting aside $500 in a contingency fund to

Big Media's War on Creativity

2004-11-11T15:27:00.000-05:00

I made the argument in my previous blog that from looking at editorial endoresements by newspapers in the election that was just concluded, it would appear that fears of corporate control over the voice and opinion of local newspapers are unfounded. I know from my own experience and from the data I looked at and reported on about newspaper endoresements that the vast majority of large media

Newspaper Endorsements

2004-11-09T21:35:00.000-05:00

Tuesday, November 9, 2004. Newspaper Endorsements. I looked at a list of 411 newspaper endorsements that was published on the Web on November 2. It provided some interesting and unsuspected insights into "big media." Of the 411 newspapers, 199 with a total circulation of 15, 900,734 endorsed Bush and 212 with circulation of 21,762,206 endorsed Kerry, which gave an early, unrealistic hope to

More On Editorializing

2004-11-08T16:21:00.000-05:00

Monday, November 8, 2004. More On Editorializing. Today Jim Romanesko of the Poyneter Institute had several links to newspaper columns about newspaper editorializing. One links to Al Neuharth's stance against it, and another, by the Pittsburgh Post-Tribune's Colin McNickle, made a plea for newspapers to editorialize in order to frame the issues for an informed public discussion. McNickle

The Post-Election Media

2004-11-07T15:13:00.000-05:00

Sunday, November 7, 2004. The Post-Election Media. Sinclair Broadcasting was widely criticized in the press and liberal blogs for running pro-Bush editorials and an anti-Kerry documentary in prime time on its television stations. One group was so upset it filed with the FCC to get the Sinclair licenses. The press also reported that many advertisers pulled their advertising from the Sinclair

Election Results

2004-11-07T09:15:00.000-05:00

Sunday, November, 7. Bill Grimes's Post-Election Thoughts. Final Thoughts: Election 1. The Months Leading Up To Election Day: · Fifty-five perecent of registered voters in the US were Democrats (and still are). · The president's management of Iraq was

Not in Anger

2004-11-03T23:18:00.000-05:00

Wednesday, November 3, 2004. Not in Anger. I read a number of blogs today and many of them were filled with anger. We all have different ways of dealing with loss. Some do it with anger or rage, other with sadness and depression, others with new resolve, and others with rationalization (“You really didn’t want Kerry to win because the mess is so big he’d get blamed for not cleaning up an

The Morning After

2004-11-03T13:26:00.000-05:00

Wednesday, November 3, 2004. The Morning After. I quit drinking 26 years ago after I had hepetitis and discovered six months after I recovered that even a sip of booze hurt my insides. I haven't missed the booze or, especially, the hangovers. The morning after tying one on were miserable. I remember saying to myself, "Was that woman I was flirting with really that pretty? Did I really make

2004-11-02T15:58:00.000-05:00

Tuesday, November 2, 2003. Election Day. I voted today at 9:30 am at the 92nd Street Y. It was inspiring to see the longest lines I've ever seen when voting at the Y. My favorite snapshots were; 1) a limo driving up, a driver hustling to open up the back door and helping a well-dressed, feeble old man out of the car and onto a walker as the old man painfully and slowly made his way to vote and

2004-11-01T18:20:00.000-05:00

Monday, November 1, 2004. I Was Bushwacked. Last evening I got a call from a woman who asked me to "support" the Southern Illinois University School of Journalism where I received my masters degree in 1982. She asked for a donation this year for more than the $100 I had given for the last few years. I told her that I wasn't able to give anything this year because, "I have given all the extra

2004-11-01T16:12:00.000-05:00

Monday, November 1, 2004. Why Sincalir and Pappas Aren't Bigger. Bill Grimes wrote the following in response to my blog about television station owners Sinclair (24 percent coverage of US TV homes) and Pappas (15 percent of US TV homes) and provides some excellent insights into the future of local television broadcasting: The reason I think neither of these companies are acquiring more

2004-10-31T16:28:00.000-05:00

Sunday, October 31, 2004. Bill Grimes Responds to GM Bully Blog The lesson is that Time Warner and Time, Inc. have enough audience and capital to exert leverage when a GM seeks "breach of church/state" deals from it. That part of your blog was good. However, criticizing GM for trying to use its muscle to get best deals was questionable--it is exactly what GM management should be trying to do.

2004-10-30T17:44:00.000-05:00

Saturday, October 30, 2004. The Ills of Media De-Regulation and Concentration. Forty Sinclair television stations aired an anti-Kerry documentary and Harry Pappas, the principle owner of Pappas Telecasting, which owns 25 television stations, bought time on some of his stations and gave it to California Congressional and state legislators running for office. These two incidences of partisan

2004-10-30T17:12:00.000-05:00

Saturday, October 30, 2004. A Bully Gets Weaker. No one likes a bully. That's why I enjoyed reading newspaper stories this past Thursday that reported that General Motors "would temporarily lay off more than 10,000 workers for one to four weeks early next year at five plants that mostly produce sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks," according the New York Times. The layoffs were undoubtedly

2004-10-30T16:06:00.000-05:00

Saturday, October 30, 2004. CNNfn. On Friday, October 29, CNN announced it was closing down CNNfn, its financial news network that was established to compete with CNBC. This was a big surprise because no one had ever heard of or watched CNNfn, so the big news was that CNNfn even existed. Who knew?

2004-10-26T12:19:00.000-05:00

Tuesday, October 26, 2004. Aron Responds. Your blog about the Yankees being terrified of losing because of the tirade that George Steinbrenner would deliver was indeed a huge stretch. These chumps make 10 million bucks a year not running out fly balls and shooting steroids in order to hit over 700 career home runs. I doubt they ever once thought about Georgie Poo yelling at them. If they

2004-10-21T18:11:00.000-05:00

Thursday, October 21, 2004. The Yankees. I 'm a Yankee fan, so I watched every game with the Red Sox--exhilerated and then let down. The Yankees were so close...and yet so far. When the Yankees went up three games to none, I was pleased and commented to my wife how professionally they went about their business. I wasn't worried when they lost game four or even game five in Boston, because I

2004-10-18T15:52:00.000-05:00

Monday, October 18, 2004. FCC a Dinosaur? I have criticized and applauded (and Bill Grimes has applauded) several recent FCC decisions. But in doing so we both made the assumption that the FCC's appropriate charter is to regulate the broadcast spectrum and oversee telecommunication policy (telephones, e.g.), especially as it relates to the electromagnetic spectrum. But has current technology

2004-10-16T15:23:00.000-05:00

Saturday, October 16, 2004. Bill Grimes Responds. Your blog, Regulation Politcs, was very-well written and argued, but I have two important points of difference: 1. The argument that the Fairness Doctrine should still be a regulation for broadcasters is because of the public airwaves concept and the reality of the consolidation in the broadcast and media industry. These are sound points

2004-10-16T05:49:00.000-05:00

Saturday, October 17, 2004. Regualtion Politics. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) made or didn't make several decisions in the past week that defied logic or a logical consistent philosphy. The only conclusion I can come up with is that the FCC is playing politicis, or more precisely, is playing to the Republicans core base--large corporate interests, especially big corporate media,

2004-10-10T11:33:00.000-05:00

Sunday, October 10, 2004. More On Stern. Howard Stern's announced move to Sirius Satellite Radio in 2006 caused a tsuami of publicity, which is just what Sirius hoped for when they signed Stern to a five-year $500-million deal. Obviously, Stern's switch will have a huge impact on Sirius's subscriber base and on Infinity Radio's bottom line and, to some degree, on Viacom's. Let's look at the

2004-10-07T08:38:00.000-05:00

Thursday, October 6, 2004. Stern News for Infinity. When Howard Stern announced on the air that he would be moving to Sirius satellite radio in 2006, when his current contract with Infinity radio is up in 15 months, you could almost hear the groans at Infinity, Viacom, and the entire radio industry. According to the Wall Street Journal, the obnoxious Stern signed a five-year $500 million deal

2004-10-02T10:57:00.000-05:00

Saturday, October 2, 2004. Warner Wolf on 1050 ESPN Radio. I listened to Warner Wolf on 1050 ESPN Radio this morning and I thought he was excellent. I'll tell you why and do some compare and contrast analysis, but first I have to give a full disclosure about my association with Warner. I first met Warner Wolf when he did a sports-talk program in WTOP-AM radio in Washington DC in 1965 or 1966

2004-09-30T22:53:00.000-05:00

Friday, October 1, 2004. The Debate Dan Froomkin blogs on politics for the Washingtonpost.com and this week he asked bloggers to fact-check the debate on Thursday night. Froomkin got a big response in the blogshphere, the Media Curmudgeon among them. GB indicated several times that 75% of Osama bin Laden's leaders have been captured. To know that, we had to know exactly how many leaders there

2004-09-30T10:44:00.000-05:00

Thursday, September 30, 2004. Greed Waiver. In a previous blog I suggested that greed was defined as "wanting more than you need or deserve, but being 'greedy' seems to add disregard for others to the definition." If we accept that definition, and I do, then the waiver that News Corp. is seeking from the FCC to continue to own a newspaper and two television stations in New York City fits the

2004-09-26T15:02:00.000-05:00

September 26, 2004. What is Greedy? I think Bill Grimes makes a valid point in his response to my Perfect Storm blog about misusing the term "greed." However, the difference between our points of view depends on the definition of greed. Michael James, in an article for ABC News.com in 2002, titled "Is Greed Ever Good?" writes, "Not even Webster's New World College Dictionary seems clear. In

2004-09-26T13:10:00.000-05:00

Sunday, September 26, 2004. Bill Grimes Responds. Your Perfect Storm blog was on the money, but I think your use of "greed" creates a question of your objectivity. Management is charged to create increasing shareholder value. That is their number-one priority. In attempting to achieve this priority, broadcast management, consisting mostly of ex-salesmen, have done the only thing they

2004-09-24T15:12:00.000-05:00

Friday, September 25 , 2004. Magazine Team Ball Brian Steinberg had a good article in today's Wall Street Journal titled "Magazines to Try Playing Team Ball." It's a good article because not only does Steinberg report about a joint effort that the magazine industry is making to have salespeople sell magazines against other media and stop selling negatively against each other's titles, but he

2004-09-24T00:08:00.000-05:00

Friday, September 24, 2004. The Perfect Storm. I have a sense that we are in the confluence of two trends in television and radio that is creating a disaster on the airwaves. The two intersecting trend lines are: 1) A sharply inclining line that represents media corporate greed and 2) a gently declining line that represents ever lower levels of viewing and listening. The greed line is fueled

2004-09-22T21:33:00.000-05:00

Wednesday, September 21, 2004. Neil Derrough Weighs In On Rathergate. Neil Derrough is the former V.P., General Manager, of WBBM-TV, WCBS-TV, and KNSD-TV. He is also the former president of the CBS Television Stations Divisions in the 1970s, and in all of his jobs he placed special emphasis on having a credible, journalistically sound news product, so he knows what he's talking about. The CBS

2004-09-22T17:29:00.000-05:00

Wednesday, September 21, 2004. Memo to Sumner Redstone To: Sumner Redstone From: The Media Curmudgeon Here is what I recommend you do about the Rathergate mess: 1. Act on the suggestion of Roy Peter Clark of the Poynter Institue and broadcast on CBS public hearings of the investigatinve panel CBS appointed, led by Dick Throburgh and Lou Boccard. It's bound to get higher ratings than the "

2004-09-21T21:42:00.000-05:00

Tuesday, September 21, 2004. AOL Is Changing Summer is over and New York is back in full swing. Jerry Della Femina is back from the Hamptons and his press agent immediately got his name in the Wall Street Journal. It's Advertising Week in town, which means that everyone in the ad biz has their flacks working full time to get some ink. In the past I have criticized AOL for a number of

2004-09-20T16:16:00.000-05:00

Monday, September 20, 2004. More On Rathergate. A student in one of my online classes asked my opinion about the Rathergate scandal and whether or not I thought it would harm CBS's reputation. Did the Jason Blair scandal hurt The New York Times's reputation? Did the Jack Kelly scandal hurt USA TODAY's reputation? CNN, NBC, and other news organizations have had similar incidences of breaking

2004-09-18T22:38:00.000-05:00

Saturday, September 18, 2004. Bullies. I'll begin this blog on bullies by saying that I think I can blast and, yes, bully Dan Rather in the previous blog about being old because I'm only four months younger than he is, so I know full well what it's like to be that old and to lose your marbles. The September 13 issue of The New Yorker had a brillinatly insightful article about Al Gore by David

2004-09-18T20:04:00.000-05:00

Saturday, September 18, 2004. What I Believe About Dan Rather. Here is what I believe to be true about Rathergate: 1. I believe that the documents that he presented on "60 Minutes II" were recreations of real documents, but they were not the real documents. So they are like a good television docudrama or great fiction--they are not factual or real, but they tell the underlying truth. 2. I

2004-09-15T09:44:00.000-05:00

Wednesday, September 15, 2004. Letter to ASME I added my name as a signatory to the following is a letter to Marlene Kahan, executive director of the American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME), asking ASME to bolster its editorial guidelines, to counter the new demands from advertisers. Dear Ms. Kahan: Magazine editors in the U.S. are under increasing pressure to weave advertising into their

2004-09-12T11:53:00.000-05:00

Sunday, September 12. Aron Levinson Responds. Aron Levinson is a National Account Manager at IAC, which operates leading and diversified businesses in sectors being transformed by the internet, online and offline. IAC consists of IAC Travel, which includes Expedia, Hotels.com, Hotwire, Interval International, and TV Travel Shop; HSN; Ticketmaster, which oversees ReserveAmerica; Match.com;

2004-09-06T09:26:00.000-05:00

Monday, September 6, 2004. The Web Feels Like a Wallflower You'd think $9.1 billion was a lot of money, but online advertising executives were vocal recently that it wasn't enough. Online ad execs feel the online medium should get a higher share of total advertising dollars than the 3.4% it received in 2003, according to eMarketer's Ad spending report and as reported in the August 16 issue of

2004-09-05T21:31:00.000-05:00

September 5, 2004. Disruptive Technologies In his 1997 book, The Innovatorâ€™s Dilemma, Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christiansen introduced the concept of disruptive technologiesâ€”technologies that at first go almost unnoticed but then eventually replace established technologies and disrupt traditional businesses and business models. The Internet was the big kahuna of disruptive

2004-09-05T13:27:00.000-05:00

September 5, 2004. Fold MSNBC. Joe Flint wrote in an article in The Wall Street Journal on August 27, "Looking to end recurring speculation that their partnership is on the rocks, executives from General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal and Microsoft Corp. said the two companies remain committed to MSNBC, the cable news channel they launched in 1996." You can be pretty sure that the relationship

2004-08-27T09:15:00.000-05:00

Friday, August 27, 2004. Out With the MBAs I have always had a prejudice against MBAs. It probably started when a Harvard MBA became head of a TV and radio station group back in the early 70s. I was VP and general manager of CBS Radio Spot Sales, an organization now defunct, and we repped the group's top radio station. The MBA was a little twerp with terrible people skills, plus he was

2004-08-25T08:34:00.000-05:00

August 25, 2004. Media Covering Media Covering Media Marshall McLuhan wrote that "the medium is the message," and never has this been more true than in the past few weeks during the Swift Boats Veterans for Truth controversy. The media, such as Editor & Publisher, the New York Times, and the Washington Post all had stories about how the media was covering the controversy as well as about the

2004-08-24T11:14:00.000-05:00

August 24, 2004. Blogger Dereliction. Julia and I went on a marvellous walking tour of the Basque country in Spain and a fabulous time--great food (the best in Europe I'm told, and I believe it). We felt welcomed and no one gave us a dirty look because we were Americans. We ended the trip in Bilbao and went to Frank Geary's Guggenheim Museum, a monumental work of art. I've never been so awed by

2004-06-06T19:15:00.000-05:00

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

2004-06-06T15:51:00.000-05:00

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

2004-05-30T08:28:00.000-05:00

Sunday, May 30, 2004. Honoring the The Dead. It's Memorial Day weekend--a holiday in which Americans are supposed to honor the fallen in wars of the past. There is a huge gathering in Washington DC of World War II veterans on the mall at the WW II memorial honoring the dead of that war, a war that some hisorians are saying that was fought by the last "great generation." The wars since WW II

2004-05-28T15:39:00.000-05:00

Friday, May 28, 2004. Supersize Yes. I guess I wasn't the only one who criticized MTV for refusing to run a commercial for the documentary movie "Supersize Me" that criticizes MTV advertiser McDonald's. Today MTV agreed to run the commercial. Here's part of the story by Elaine Dutka from the Los Angeles Times: "According to an e-mail provided by IDP Films, which is distributing the movie, an

2004-05-27T17:51:00.000-05:00

Thursday, May 27, 2004. Bill Grimes Responds. In my view the very pompous NYT is focusing more on quantity than quality. They lead the newspaper world in number of sections and words per day. Seemingly every month brings another new section of narrow interest content, which would be fine if they could manage to keep the quality of their prime, fundamental product, international news of

2004-05-27T16:44:00.000-05:00

Thursday, May 27, 2004. Supersize No. Reuters in an online story today reported that "Cable network MTV refused to air advertisements for documentary 'Super Size Me,' a critical look at the health impact of a fast-food only diet, its distributors said on Wednesday." In the movie, director Morgan Spurlock eats nothing but food from McDonald's over a 30-day period, and when asked if he wants the

2004-05-27T15:17:00.000-05:00

Thursday, May 27, 2004. Expert Sources. On Wednesday, May 26, the New York Times, on the bottom of page A10 published an item "From the Editors" titled "The Times and Iraq." It began: "Over the last year this newspaper has shone the bright light of hindsight on decisions that led the United States into Iraq. We have examined the failings of American and allied intelligence, especially on the

2004-05-25T20:24:00.000-05:00

Tuesday, May 25, 2004. Cable Upfront Soars. Why? In my first blog last October, 2003, I suggested that network television had reached a tipping point when a number of major advertisers, especially automotive advertisers, were opting out of their fourth quarter commitments--it didn't bode well for the 2004-2005 upfront, I thought. The upfront market is in heat right now and the agencies and

2004-05-19T21:46:00.000-05:00

Wednesday, May 19, 2004. Silos. I mentioned that the problem with most cross-platform sales efforts by the major media companies has been silos--divisions that have their own revenue budgets and won't cooperate with cross-platform sales efforts. Agencies have indicated that they are in favor of buying on a cross-platform basis from Time Warner, Viacom, News Corp, Disney/ABC, and, now, NBC

2004-05-19T20:12:00.000-05:00

Wednesday, May 19, 2004. MSN's Upfront Promotion. According to MediaPost Microsoft's MSN is posting people dressed in MSN's butterfly garb outside locations where the broadcast networks are giving their upfront presentations. The MSN butterflies are distributing handouts that read, "Friendly reminder: Consumers view multiple screens. Don't spend it all in one place, and integrated marketing

2004-05-19T17:45:00.000-05:00

Wednesday, May 19, 2004. Shame on NBC. NBC's "Dateline" began as a weekday prime time news program in the late 1980s that copied CBS's long-running and highly rated "60 Minutes." It got into trouble in 1993 when it aired a sequence about a General Motors truck blowing up. NBC News soon after sufffered a humiliating bout of confessions and soul-searching after admitting it rigged the

2004-05-18T20:27:00.000-05:00

Wednesday, May 19, 2004. NBC Universal Ad. In Monday's edition of Advertising Age and Television Week, NBC Universal ran a huge eight-page fold-out ad (four pages on two sides). The ad featured white copy on a deep blue background, and the headline read, "America's #1 televison entity joins together with the world's premium entertainment studio to form the universe's most forward-thinking

2004-05-18T13:14:00.000-05:00

Tuesday, May 18, 2004. Up or Down, Good or Bad? It Depends on What Paper You Read. On Monday, May 17, 2004, the Wall Street Journal ran a story by Suzanne Vranica in the Marketplace section titled "For Big Marketers Like Amex, TV Ads Lose Starring Role." The article indicates that large advertisers such as American Express and P&G are disenchanted with TV are are looking for less expensive and

2004-05-15T20:39:00.000-05:00

Saturday, May 15, 2004. Chris Responds. My second son, Chris Warner, and father of my grandaughter, Ava, responded to my letter to my eight children as follows: "Your blog pushed a button and got me riled up, so here is my tirade. As you know, I have been a Kerry guy all along. It is discouraging that middle America, or what I call "the red states" love Bush. They hate a man who lies about a

2004-05-13T21:11:00.000-05:00

Thursday, May 13, 2004. Letter to My Eight Children. Dear Kids: All of you, except Will, are old enough to vote, and I urge all of you not only to vote for John Kerry but also to volunteer to work for his campaign. It is absolutely imperative for the future of this country that Bush not be re-elected in November. Your grandfather, Dyp Warner, served in World War I. He enlisted when he was

2004-05-13T16:54:00.000-05:00

Thursday, May 13, 2004. Bill Grimes Elaborates on NBC's New Sales Structure. For those readers who don't know who Bill Grimes is, he is the ex-CEO of ESPN, Univision, Multimedia, and Zentih Media (the media buying arm of Saatichi and Saatchi advertising) and a partner in B&G Media Investments. In other words, he knows what he's talking about. "Good analysis of something I have thought about (

2004-05-12T18:12:00.000-05:00

Wednesday, May 12, 2004. NBC's New Sales Structure An article in Monday's Television Week had the headline "NBC Making One-Stop Shop." The article began, "In an unprecedented move, NBC is expected to merge the advertising sales operations for all of its broadcast and cable networks under one executive-Keith Turner, president of advertising sales for NBC, an executive close to NBC said. Putting

2004-05-07T16:11:00.000-05:00

Friday, May 7, 2004. Letter to Dubya Dear Mr. President: The polls aren't looking good. You'd better do something to appeal to a wider group of voters. I'm writing you because it's obvious Karl Rove has no idea how to spin the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal. Here are some suggestions: 1. Fire Rumsfeld and make Colin Powell Secretary of Defense--put the war in the hands of a general who knows

2004-05-06T22:29:00.000-05:00

Thursday, May 6, 2004. Darts and Laurels The Columbia Journalism Review for years has given Darts and Laurels for examples of good and bad journalism. I think I'll give a few not only out of respect to CJR, but also because I can't come up with a better labels. Laurel: To Seymour Hersh for his story "Torture at Abu Ghraib" in the May 10 issue of The New Yorker and to the New Yorker for running

2004-05-06T21:37:00.000-05:00

Thursday, May 6, 2004. Thanks CBS News When I was general manager of NBC-owned WNBC-AM radio (now WFAN) in 1978, I became a member of the New York City Radio Broadcasters Association. The general managers of the major New York radio stations were member and regularly attended the meetings: Mel Karmazin was GM of WNEW-FM, as I remember, and Rick Devlin was GM of WOR--I them both from the years

2004-05-02T14:12:00.000-05:00

Saturday, May 1, 2004. Hooray, Hooray, It's the First of May! Hooray, hooray, it's the first of May; Buffett endorses Kerry today! There was a story on Bloomberg.com today, May 1, that the world's second-richest person, investor Warren Buffett, has joined Democrat John Kerry's campaign as an advisor on economic policy. Buffett, who heads the Berkshire Hathaway Inc. investment company, has

2004-04-30T21:06:00.000-05:00

Friday, April 30, 2004. A Nasty Dilemma In today's Boston Globe, the following headline appeared, "UMass paper under fire for Tillman column." The story by Marcella Bombardieri, went on, "A college newspaper columnist who wrote that NFL player and Army ranger Pat Tillman 'got what was coming to him' when he was killed in Afganistan triggered a furor at the University of Massachusetts yesterday,

2004-04-30T20:43:00.000-05:00

Friday, April 30, 2004. Shutting Down the Marketplace of Ideas I'm not a good enough writer to express deep emotional feelings or outrage in writing. An accomplished writer like The Rude Pundit would probably do a much better job at expressing outrage about two stories that broke today that I believe validate, once again, that the conservatives are trying to shut down the free marketplace of

2004-04-28T14:47:00.000-05:00

Wednesday, April 28, 2004. I'm Worried About Air America Radio When Air America Radio first went on the air a month ago, I listened not only because I wanted this liberal radio voice to succeed but also because I wanted to hear how they sounded, how they were programmed. Therefore, I was disturbed to read in today's New York Times a story headlined "Two Executives Leave Air America." In the "

2004-04-25T23:40:00.000-05:00

Sunday, April 25, 2004. The Upfront of Dorian Gray. One of the ways that I keep up on what's happening in the media industry is to read The Jack Myers Report. The daily newsletter is read by many media industry executives and Jack is ofter prescient about media trends. He is also usually good on economic issues and media industry revenue forecasts. Jack has been writing lately about the

2004-04-19T20:12:00.000-05:00

Monday, April 19, 2004. There's a Sucker Born Every Year (In May) When I was doing research on this blog, I Googled P.T. Barnum, who said, "There's a sucker born every minute," or so I thought. On a P.T. Barnum Web site, I learned that one of Barnum's competitors actually originated the phrase. But so what, I thought, it sounds like Barnum and, so, it works. Just like Bogart never said, "Play

2004-04-19T17:15:00.000-05:00

Monday, April 19, 2004. No Sooner Said Than Done Not even someone with as big an ego as mine could rationally claim that a blog about Viacom and other media companies being wimps and not challenging the FCC's Taliban-like assault on freedom of speech in the name of curbing indecency changed any one's mind. However, today a story moved on the wires that Viacom, Fox, the Screen Actors Guild, Radio

2004-04-18T11:32:00.000-05:00

Sunday, April 18, 2004. Better Commercials? There are some encouraging signs that television commercials might get less obnoxious. After Bud Light's farting horse, a horny chimp, a male bikini-wrap, and crotch-snapping dog nadir in the Super Bowl, Anheuser-Busch is rethinking the tone and content of television commercials. As reported in Stuart Elliott's "Advertising" column in the Friday,

2004-04-17T22:18:00.000-05:00

Saturday, April 17, 2004. Chris Warner Responds As far as I'm concerned, AOL is irrelevant. I reduced my usage to the $4.95/mo. for 3 hours, and only keep it for email because changing is a royal pain. Now that I have a cable modem, I actually use the Internet.

2004-04-12T21:41:00.000-05:00

Monday, April 12, 2004. Some Free Advice for AOL (And Worth Every Penny) I have not been blogging for over a month because I have feverishly been trying to finish my online book, Media Sales Mangement, before the students in my Media Sales and Sales Management graduate class at the New School University are supposed to read it. I have finished six of seven chapters and should have the final

2004-03-08T12:03:00.000-05:00

Monday, March 8, 2004. Bill Grimes Responds Charlie - Three points: 1. Your fundamental argument that senior corporate management has not been diligent in its oversight of AOL is undebatable. Any one of your examples is enough to create change at the Logan/Miller level. That three ethical/"taste" indescetions and failures have occurred is inexcusable. Further, the incompetence of management in

2004-03-08T02:31:00.000-05:00

Sunday, March 7, 2004. Wake Up, Dick It's time for Dick Parsons, the CEO of Time Warner, to wake up and do something about AOL. AOL is under the command of Don Logan, one of two honchos under Parsons who are responsible for running the day-to-day operations of the many Time Warner divisions (Jeff Bewkes is the other honcho). But under Logan's watch, AOL has had one disaster after another.

2004-03-08T00:42:00.000-05:00

Saturday, March 6, 2004. Nasty People This was a week for people who dislike nasty, mean, and egomaniacal people to celebrate--in addition to people with merely good taste celebrating. Howard Stern's syndicated radio program was thrown off six Clear Channel radio stations, Michael Eisner got a huge vote of no confidence by stockholders (an unheard of 43 percent), and a jury convicted Martha

2004-03-05T16:43:00.000-05:00

Friday, March 5, 2004. Tom Weir Responds I enjoy reading the Blog from time to time! It's been nutty around here, but I check it when I can. I appreciate your impression of the network meltdown that we are seeing (actually have been seeing for quite some time now). Frequently when I see a story about the new lows reached in primetime network audience, I think of Jacobs' book Short Term

2004-03-02T23:03:00.000-05:00

Tuesday, March 2, 2004. My Wife Responds Charlie, people in glass houses should not throw stones. Before you comment on the tchotchkes on my dresser, you had better check out your own! Biting the hand that feeds you both literally and figuratively puts you at risk being perceived by your blog's admirers perhaps as a great writer but a poor speller and proof reader. By the way, have you forgotten

2004-03-01T21:56:00.000-05:00

Monday, March 1, 2004. Exclusivity The Wall Street Journal had a story in today's paper with the headline, "Ameritrade Sets Ad 'Roadblock' In Deal to Break Free of Clutter" in the "Advertising" section. Suzanne Vranica's story told of a deal the online brokerage company, Ameritrade, made to be the exclusive financial-services company to advertise between 3:30 and 4:00 p.m. on news programs on

2004-02-26T22:15:00.000-05:00

February 26, 2004. Trump Should Fire Dobbs I watched "The Apprentice" tonight for the first time. Several years ago I vowed that I would never watch prime time broadcast network television again, but I read a story in Newsweek about "The Apprentice," in which it quoted someone as saying that it was must-watching for MBAs at Harvard and Wharton. I figured I ought to see what the hullabaloo was

2004-02-23T12:17:00.000-05:00

Monday, February 23, 2004. Talk About Bad Taste! In the original Mel Brooks movie, "The Producers," with Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder, there is a scene on opening night of the two would-be crooked producers' play "Springtime for Hitler." When a chorus line Nazi storm troopers break into the sunny song, "Spring time for Hitler and Germany," a man standing in the back of the theater says

2004-02-23T11:44:00.000-05:00

February 23, 2004. College Football Scandals and MTV Half-time Show" The Super Bowl is the ultimate football event. Every aspiring football player in America, and, yes, the world, wants to play in the Super Bowl eventually. Young football players want to emulate the players on the filed of the big game--look like them, have hair like them, have tattoos like them, talk trash like them,

2004-02-23T11:12:00.000-05:00

Monday, February 23, 2004. Bill Grimes Responds I think this (February 19th "I Told You So") is one of your better blogs. You present both the facts and your opinion succinctly and interestingly. Unfortunately, you reach an erroneous conclusion. The the evidence you sight that this GM action is "a tipping point" is very weak. It is in compete contradiction with history. Here is why.

2004-02-22T18:01:00.000-05:00

Sunday, February 22, 2004. Hiphopcrisy Yes, yes. I know I misspelled hypocrisy; you'll see why in a moment. Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary defines hypocrisy as "a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not." I have another, updated definition: Mel Karmazin. On February 18 Karmazin said in a conference call to the top brass of all 180 of Viacom's radio stations

2004-02-19T16:02:00.000-05:00

Thursday, February 19, 2004. I Told You So I know some people who like to say, "I don't like to remind you, but I told you so," when something happens that they warned you about. I'm not that humble. I like being right and saying, "I told you so." In my first blog on October 2, 2003, I wrote: "Buyers are saying to television sales departments to work harder and start delivering more value.

2004-02-16T14:00:00.000-05:00

Sunday, February 15, 2004. Bill Grimes Weighs In on "W" THE WORLD IS A SAFER PLACE------TELL IT, "W" In today's New York Times Thomas Friedman opines on what John Kerry should say about Iraq if he were interviewed on "Meet The Press" as President Bush was last Sunday. While in this column Mr.. Friedman does not comment on the President's performance in answering Tim Russert's questions about

2004-02-14T15:28:00.000-05:00

Friday, February 13, 2004. Time for Eisner to Go Comcast made a hostile bid for Disney this week about $54 billion. The reason Comcast gave for its offer was to combine its distribution with Disney's content. The real reason, I think, is because Disney is vulnerable because CEO Michael Eisner is under attack for being a terrible manager who has done nothing lately for Disney stockholders.

2004-02-09T12:33:00.000-05:00

Monday, February 9, 2004. President John Edwards Senator John Edwards was a very successful trial lawyer and he has been a charismatic, excellent communicator in the primaries so far. His positive campaign strategy has put him in a position so that if he doesn't win the Democratic nomination for president (which he won't), he is in a perfect position to be Kerry's (who will win the nomination)

2004-02-08T17:38:00.000-05:00

Sunday, February 8, 2004. Something You Won't See on CBS, NBC, ABC, or Fox I teach online courses for the University of Missouri School of Journalism in its online Media Management graduate degree program. I love teaching these courses because I have such great students, mostly mid-career professionals. This week, one of my students, posted the following comment. "I just watched 'Frontline's'

2004-02-08T17:24:00.000-05:00

Sunday, February 8, 2004, Get It Right, NY Times Alessandra Stanley, in an article titled "L'Affaire Bodice: Why We Are Shocked, Shocked" in the "Week in Review" section of The New York Times on Sunday, 28/2004, wrote "The F.C.C. has jurisdiction over networks, not cable, and its enforcement of indecency is scattered." Stanley wrote a thoughtful article that expressed the hope that the "Super

2004-02-06T12:03:00.000-05:00

Friday, February 6, 2004. We Import Cars and Stereos, So Why Not CEOs? The following commentary by Jesse Kornbluth appeared today as an Op-Ed piece in the Los Angeles Times. Because it deals, in part, with Michael Eisner's outrageous compensation, I thought it belonged in my Media Curmudgeon Blog. I'm also posting it because I wish I'd written it--a little column envy. LOS ANGELES TIMES, 2/6/

2004-02-04T03:03:00.000-05:00

Wednesday, February 4, 2004. Expectations May Alter Outcomes On November 7, Sharon Begley wrote a "Science Journal" column in the Wall Street Journal titled "Expectations May Alter Outcomes Far More Than We Realize." Begley quoted Robert Rosenthal, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Riverside: "Expectation becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. When teachers have been led

2004-02-04T00:45:00.000-05:00

Wednesday, February 4, 2004. More Boob Fallout A good friend of mine said that MTV probably loved all the publicity it was getting because of its Super-Boob half-time show. Well, I'll bet MTV's ratings do go up. It may be good for MTV--the kids that watch MTV like that stuff--but it wasnâ€™t good for CBS, Moonves, or Karmazin. I predict that Sumner Redstone will not be amused (heâ€™s even

2004-02-03T02:18:00.000-05:00

Tuesday, February 3, 2004. Best Companies to Work For? Not a Media Company. The January 12 issue of Fortune magazine featured its annual list of the 100 Best Companies To Work For. For the first time, the J.M. Smucker company of Orrville, Ohio, was number one. Yes, the company that says about itself, "With a name like Smucker's, it's got be good." And it is. If you're not addicted to

2004-02-03T01:16:00.000-05:00

Monday, February 2, 2004, Janet's Boob and WMD Super Bowl XXXVIII was a great football game; one of the most exciting Super Bowls ever. But today everyone was not talking about the game but about Janet Jackson's bare right boob that Justin Timberlake uncovered for a split second (before CBS cut away) at the end of the half-time show. The Bush administration should hire Timberlake; maybe he can

2004-01-28T13:57:00.000-05:00

Response by Paul Talbot Iâ€™m covering Charlie on the right wing nut claim. And raising stakes with the suggestion that Murdochâ€™s Post is destructive and dangerous. Weâ€™re three weeks shy of first anniversary of the Post retracting its sad hatchet job on Sandy Koufax. You may remember the piece it ran in the fall of 2002 suggesting that an unnamed member of the Baseball Fall of Fame was

2004-01-26T11:42:00.000-05:00

Monday, January 26 - Bill Grimes Responds Charlie - I take issue with your main contention here that Murdoch's "politicizing" with the NY Post and being a "right wing nut" is deleterious to anyone--not his shareholders who suffer the $40 million Post loss and certainly not the Post's readers--circulation up nearly 50% in two years. His shareholders do not suffer because they know that when they

2004-01-25T18:57:00.000-05:00

Sunday, January 25 - Candidate Decision Criteria I have finally made my decision on which Democratic candidate to support, even before the New Hampshire primary. I used multiple decision criteria: their positions on a wide variety of issues that matter to me, such as Social Security, Medicare, the environment, taxes, the deficit, the death penalty, gun control, and the mess in Iraq. I checked

2004-01-24T14:32:00.000-05:00

Saturday, January 24 - A Big Day January 22 is my favorite day of the year. It's the birthday of my wonderful, perfect wife, Julia, and it is also our anniversary; we were married on January 22, 2000. So, this year was our fourth wedding anniversary (I won't tell you how old Julia is, but I'll give you a hint: she's 17 years younger than I am, which puts her somewhere in her mid-twenties). The

2004-01-23T17:52:00.000-05:00

Friday, January 23 - Bad Press, As In "Bad Dog." Jerry Would Have Done It Right. On Monday night, after the Iowa caucuses were over, I was watching CNN and saw the top four candidates give their speeches. If I remember correctly the order of the speeches, I think Gephardt's sad, dignified speech to his family and supporters was first. Edwards's intelligent, well-delivered speech was right on