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Just a few weeks ago I was celebrating the departure of Time Warner's Dick Parsons, the only top exec left who was responsible for that company's disastrous merger with AOL. (I hoped the door did hit him in the ass on his way out.) Because, thanks to "Teflon Dick", a lot of TW shareholders for more than a decade curse him every time they look at their drowning portfolios. Now Obama wants to let him sink the Commerce Department? Noooooooooooooooooooooo. For crissakes, Time Warner today said it will take a non-cash impairment charge of $25 billion because of poor market conditions at its cable, publishing and AOL units. This, after Parsons back in July declared himself "bullish" on the outlook for the media industry. BFD that Parsons sits on the Obama Economic Advisory Board brainstorming solutions to the U.S. economic crisis. The fact he's got a consistent record of abject failure at Time Warner should have disqualified him for even that. Worse, Teflon Dick was always fearful of making the really hard decisions necessary to fix what was wrong with that company, or even admitting responsibility by falling on his sword like Steve Case and Gerry Levin did. Hasn't this country had enough of leaders unable to admit past mistakes or forsee future problems? My answer to those who think this Rockefeller Republican should join the Obama cabinet is this: he would have made a swell Bush appointee.
Dick Parsons For Commerce Secretary?
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Noooo!!! This must be some kind of a joke. Fred Hochberg as Commerce Secretary!!!!
As someone who has worked at Time Warner for nearly 20 years, and who was a participant at a few Q&As Parsons held with upper management of TW divisions, I can tell you that this guy doesn’t have a clue. At each Q&A he would say how proud he was that he didn’t have a vision, that his whole plan was to sit back and let everyone else do their job (while he collected his millions, of course). Great leadership there, Dick!
Please, Barack, don’t add this long-time-loser to your cabinet. Let him run for Mayor of New York where he’ll get about 10 votes.
Fasten your seat belts kids,we are in for a bumpy ride.
Let’s see, first it was Eric Holder for Attorney General – Holder got Marc Rich pardoned. Next it was Leon Panetta for CIA chief – Panetta has no experience in intelligence. Now it is Dick Parsons for Commerce – an abject failure of the worst kind.
Both Clinton and Bush made some terrible cabinet choices in their respective 8 years. Obama is starting out with horrific choices from the very start. Many are getting very nervous.
Change we can believe in? Yeah, right.
Wow! “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.” If the info on this guy is correct then the idea of change in this country is just nothing more than a pipe dream. In a time of eye popping out of the sockets crisis that we’re in at the moment we need bold leadership. People that are willing to make the bold strokes to get us out of this nightmare of governmental incompetancy…no more waffles. We need LEADERS! LEADERS! LEADERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Parsons would be a brilliant selection in order to make the Great Depression even greater. That’s how the Cheney Crime Syndicate Inc. got us in the mess we are in today—by ensuring incompetent bumblescrumps got to become secretaries of big agencies.
Why does this surprise anyone that the big donors and big supporters get the big jobs in the administration? It’s been the MO of politicians since the advent of the system. Appointing friends and donors to positions they have failed at in the private sector is “Change you can believe in.” I’m waiting for Jeff Zucker or Ben Silverman to be appointed FCC chairman next.
Nikki,
It may be true that Parsons is a dud, but who are you kidding re: Steve Case? It was Case’s swindling of the Time Warner board, misrepresenting the health of AOL that lead to the overwhelming failure of the more fiscally strong Time Warner. He didnt fall on his sword, he was appropriately sent away. He along with Levin, Bob Pittman and countless others should have gone to prison for their participation in one of the many frauds commited against the average working person in this country who trusted their government to regulate business just enough to prevent their savings from being manipulated, stolen or lost due to greed and irresponsibiity. Last I checked Steve Case’s retirement from a financial stand point is totally safe. Falling on one’s sword this is most definitely not!
Nikki,
All true about Parsons as it relates to TW, but the little political commentary at the end was unnecessary and unfounded. The problem with civility in politics these days is that everyone is always trying to take pot-shots as a way of proclaiming their allegiances and ideology. It’s like blasting the Red Sox just because you’re a Yankees fan. Politics and the governance of our country is not sport but unfortunately too many people treat it as such and the web has only served to raise that attitude from private conversations to public discourse (or discord rather). People come to DHD for entertainment news and information, not political rhetoric. I hoe that you’ll refrain from that type of commentary in the future and stick to what you do so well (and better than most). By the way, sorry to have read about your father. Good thoughts are with you.
Wasn’t it Gerald Levin who “masterminded” the AOL/Time-Warner merger?
I hope upon hope that Obama’s strong leadership potential will manifest itself someday soon.
Nikki just admit that Parsons is only getting this job because of the color of his skin and not due to the content of his character or his ability to manage large financial assets.
Agreed. After a string of top picks, the President-elect has stumbled in the past few picks. Leon P is a good guy, but should he really run the CIA? Now Parsons? What’s going on? Obama had a deep bench of business supporters to pick from. I would have picked a proven turn around CEO with strong international creditials. Too bad he lost Richardson. He was a great pick.
Brave call on Parsons, Nikki. (I know this isn’t a political blog) The guy is a bloated lackey, always has been. TWX was a gaping hole in my IRA, even before the recent down turn. Thanks, Dick!
Color me confused . . . but most of the management decisions over the clusterscrew that is Time Warner was arranged by Jeff Bewkes. The shuttering of New Line, Picturehouse, and Warner Independent (an oxymoronical department if ever I’ve seen one), the merger with UPN to form the lackluster CW Television Network, the live-action-ization of Cartoon Network, the virtual shutdown of Warner Animation, the lack of drive at HBO, which has lost its role as cable’s original programming king to the likes of FX, Showtime, TNT, and fricken AMC, you see, all of that came under Bewkes’ watch, not Parsons. Jeff Bewkes is the Chairman, President, and CEO of the company, not Parsons. See, in Hollywood, they reward incompetence, not punish it, which is why it surprises me that even with the nosediving stock Bewkes is the only guy that still has his job at Time Warner.
Anyone irredeemably stupid enough to have stayed long TWX for the last ten years deserves to have lost money.
this is an interesting idea (-;