Eugene David<br>...The One-Minute Pundit

Posted 9:10 AM by Gene

For years now, we’ve grown accustomed to the personality flaws of the men who would be moguls — especially the degree to which Big Media boys tinker with their toys. For every Mel Karmazin, who would say, “The day I start looking at pilots is the day you should start selling your stock in the company,” there’s his boss, Sumner Redstone, who, at the behest of his then movie-producer girlfriend, made a crack-of-dawn call to a Paramount screenwriter and ranted, “You’re late with that f---ing rewrite.” For every Dick Parsons, who boasts to friends he can’t be bothered to watch his own television product, there’s Michael Eisner, who spent weeks trying to resolve a plot problem involving apparent incest between brother and sister animals for a straight-to-video sequel to The Lion King. And for every Jeffrey Immelt, who’d rather talk about General Electric’s medical equipment than its NBC subsidiary, there’s Jack Welch, the retired GE chairman, who became so embroiled in the network’s business that he’d start off conversations asking about the weight of his increasingly fat Veronica’s Closet sitcom star, Kirstie Alley.

If only this weren't Nikki Finke, and if only this weren't just another lap in a circular argument.