Like rubbernecking past a car wreck, I can't resist octogenarian retired CEO Al Neuharth's weekly column, every Friday in USA Today.Manners maven Letitia Baldrige evidently wasn't in charge of seating assignments at the Newseum luncheon that followed Meet the Press host Tim Russert's funeral two months ago. The still-sassy retired White House social secretary would never have seated Neuharth at the same table with former NBC News President Michael Gartner.
Gartner, you'll recall, was the journalist hired by Neuharth's Freedom Forum foundation to write a warts-and-all bio of our favorite suntanned retiree in Cocoa Beach, Fla. But then Gartner turned up one particular wart Neuharth's loyal retainers didn't want public after all: an out-of-wedlock daughter.
I'd love to read the manuscript Freedom Forum paid to have killed before publication. Do you suppose it's in a safe at that luxe condominium CEO Charles Overby occupies above the Newseum? (Random thought: Did Overby get a special condo discount?)
Pay no attention to those layoffs!
Today, Big Al managed to overlook another bit of unpleasantness: Those sweeping layoffs at the company he (mis)led as CEO. So, being a service-oriented blogger, I'll reprise some of his financial bon mots for those of you laid-off Gannetteers now facing ruin:
- Plunging stock prices can be fun!
- Boozin' Neuharth loves his Cadillac healthcare
- Let them eat excess leather belts
I have a hard time with Mr. Neuharth's tenure at Gannett (and beyond.) Gannett gives off the impression that it is a no-nonsense, fiscally conservative corporation, but the men-in-charge seem to use their positions to insulate themselves and their Romper-Room lifestyles. This aspect does trickle down to other links in the chain (until they are caught!) which is on the order of each newspaper in Gannett's kingdom having their own little versions of Al Neuharths. Witness that none of Gannett's elite have come out and offered to reduce their salarys, their benefits, their perks during these trying times. It is all about them and what they can grab from YOU!
ReplyDeleteRE Michael Gartner and Gannett
ReplyDeleteFrom Ron Maly's blog
betrayal
"I was particularly interested in chapter 23 of the book, which is titled 'Betrayal.' The betrayal part is in reference to Mike Gartner, aka Michael Gartner, a power-hungry little asshole who many people regard as the most hated man in the state of Iowa. At one point or another, Gartner -- who has always had an advanced case of 'little man's disease' and is a poster child for the ailment -- finds a way of getting under the skin of virtually everyone he meets."
-- From a July 9 review of the book "David and Liz -- Dancing Through Love."
http://wesleyvaclav.blogspot.com/2008_07_01_archive.html
Scroll down, it's near the end of the string of blog posts.
I hope the SOB is drowning in his Pumpkin Center, and pray that Fay will cost him a fortune to make his log house waterproof and tropical-storm-proof. I trace Gannett's problems back to Al and his Jetscapades loyally reported by Jack Kelley, the hand-picked chosen one who went on to fame at USAT. His legacy was to drain local newspapers of their financing in order to pay for his lavish schemes, and still he drains the Foundation for a salary for doing nothing. Damn, I wish Fay had been a five-scale hurricane that would have wiped him and ever last log in his cabin from the face of Cocoa Beach.
ReplyDeleteThose Newseum condos are all for lease, not for purchase.
ReplyDeleteThanks, @3:40 pm; fixed that!
ReplyDelete