Roger Ailes

Rolling Stone does a profile of Roger Ailes.

Judging by the title of the piece ("How Roger Ailes Built the Fox News Fear Factory") and the subtitle of the piece ("The onetime Nixon operative has created the most profitable propaganda machine in history. Inside America's Unfair and Imbalanced Network"), I'm guessing he's not going to like it.

Viacom defends executive pay

I always get a kick out of stories like this one. After the news got out that the three highest paid executives in entertainment all work for Viacom, they had to come out with a reason why.

The pay: CEO Phillipe Dauman--$85 million (149% pay raise)
COO Thomas Dooley--$64.7 million (139% pay raise)
Chairman of the board Sumner Redstone--$35.3 million

Dooley's pay, by the way, is 6-times higher than a typical CEO--and he's only the COO.

Read the article and judge for yourself whether or not that is reasonable compensation. I think you know where I stand.

Pandora

They plan to offer an IPO very soon, and expect it to go through the roof, but I keep looking at statements like this from their CEO: "We expect to continue to incur operating losses on an annual basis at least through fiscal 2012," and I wonder why in the world people are going crazy for it.

I guess I just don't understand high finance. (Although I suspect I know why they call it "high" finance.)

Weinergate

If you weren't paying attention to the news this weekend (like me), you may have missed the incredibly strange story of Weinergate.

The full story is here.

It involves a hacked twitter account, a photo of a man's fully aroused underwear, a college coed, Representative Anthony Weiner, and a conservative blogosphere that took the story and ran with it long before any facts were revealed.

Howard versus Mel

Get me some popcorn, I'm loving this.

Howard Stern is going to war against his boss Mel Karmazin.

He's even taking shots at him on the air. Turns out, Mel is not living up to his financial promises. As one person in the article mentions, "Mel has always been better at taking care of Mel."

Harry & Jay

Two of my former Chicago Radio Spotlight interviews were in the news this week.

Some good news first. Harry Teinowitz avoided jail this week when he pleaded guilty to the DUI charge. He told the judge that this was probably the best thing that ever happened to him because it's forcing him to clean up his act. That's great to hear. I honestly wish him the best.

Then the frightening news out of Colorado. Former WLS talk show host Jay Marvin is recovering from a suicide attempt. He's been going through some rough times and medical problems, and those were on top of his already diagnosed bipolar disorder. Read his blog. It's heartbreaking. He's in a lot of pain right now.

(If you'd like to read my original Chicago Radio Spotlight interviews with either man, I interviewed them both in 2007: Harry Teinowitz, Jay Marvin)

Fired for Tweeting

Here's a tip to journalists out there: Remember to always be careful what you say on Twitter.

Here are four high profile journalists that were fired for something they tweeted, and here are four more.

You may only get 140 characters, but it's apparently not that hard to say something that can get you fired in 140 characters.

Ed Schultz suspended

From this morning's Radio Ink...

"Radio talker and MSNBC host Ed Schulz started serving his one week suspension last night after appearing on his 10PM show for 4 minutes. Schultz started his show with a major apology and a request for forgiveness for the remarks he leveled at Laura Ingraham. He was quickly replaced after the networks' first commercial break. Schultz called his remarks the "lowest of the low for me" adding I used vile and inappropriate language." Schultz apologized to his staff for embarrassing them and said he tried to call Ingraham to apologize but no contact was made. Schultz was suspended by MSNBC for a week after calling Laura Ingraham a "right wing slut" on his radio program."

Laura Ingraham certainly isn't a saint (google some of her famous slams, including her comments about Megan McCain and Michelle Obama), but I think it's nice that MSNBC takes the high road.

Soccer on the radio?

Yes, it's true. From this morning's Radio Online...

"Fox Sports Radio, in conjunction with Fox Sports TV, will air the UEFA Champions League Final live on Saturday, May 28. The game, which is considered by many to be the single biggest game in the sport, is between two of the most famous soccer clubs in the world: Manchester United and Barcelona. The broadcasting team will include Curt Menefee, Eric Wynalda and Kyle Martino."

That is a huge game. Sean has a soccer tournament that day, so I'm hoping the game falls somewhere in between his games.

You're New American Idol

I didn't watch one second of the show this season, but they did crown a new American Idol this week. His name is Scotty McCreery, and he's 17 years old.

I have a rule about watching American Idol. I'll only watch if a kid that used to work at a paint store three blocks away from my house is on it.

You'd be surprised how often that happens.

The story behind the story

Sometimes the origin of a leaked story is just as fascinating as the story itself. That's the case with the latest Sarah Palin leaked e-mail story.

Media Bistro has the story behind that story.

Oprah's Last Show

It airs at 9AM in Chicago.

I worked in the media for Oprah's entire Chicago run, and met many people that worked for her (and they never ever talked about her...they signed agreements saying they wouldn't), but I never met Oprah. I never talked to her on the phone. I was never even in the same room as her. And this, despite the fact that I tried to book her as a guest for twenty years. (If you knew the lengths we went to...oh boy, what a huge load of wasted time.)

So, I have mixed emotions about her last show. I didn't watch her show very often because of the time it was on, but I understand and appreciate her impact on the people that did. I have to give her credit for all the good she has done over the past ten years or so. But I also wouldn't be honest if I didn't admit that I never really considered her part of Chicago's media community. She just happened to do her show here.

There has never been a Chicago figure that was more difficult to reach, including Michael Jordan. For the people in Chicago, Oprah's departure to the West Coast won't change the access to her in the slightest.

A black eye for Christians AND radio

OK, the nutjob that said the Rapture would be this weekend is an embarrassment to fundamentalist Christians everywhere, but he's much more than that to me. As a former radio guy, I'm embarrassed that he's a radio guy too. Sadly, he's not the only moron in radio. From Tom Taylor's column this morning at Radio-Info.com...

"Camping reiterated that the world's really going to end on October 21, and as far as he's concerned, Judgment Day did occur on May 21. But God decided not to make people suffer through the next five months. As for all the donations made to Family Radio - Camping doesn't intend to give them back. To him, they were made to further the gospel, and that's what his organization has done with the money. But for sure, they'll be more low-key about the October 21 hard date for end-of-world - the billboards are coming down. Family Radio’s international projects manager Matt Tuter tells the Christian Post he blames the Family Radio board – “they are the ones responsible for this mess”, by listening to Camping about yet another of his apocalyptic predictions. Tuter says Camping’s actually predicted The End about ten times."

As Jon Stewart pointed out, the guy is 89 years old. The End actually is coming for him. It could be any day now.

Oprah's Book Club

It appears that Oprah's Book Club will continue even after her show goes off the air. She even told USA Today that she's planning on having an entire show dedicated to books and authors.

Now if you'll pardon me, I have five years worth of posts to go through on my blog, carefully expunging anything that could be considered remotely offensive to Oprah.

(I have three books coming out in the next year or so)

Sumner and Rupert

Variety takes a look at the two aging executives (Sumner is 88 and Rupert is 80), and speculates about their succession plans (because neither has one...at least not publicly).

Oh, and Variety also dishes about the soap operas that are their personal lives. Money can buy you happiness, but only if you have no concept of what happiness actually is. Read about their personal lives and tell me if that would make you happy.

Roger Ailes

New York Magazine has a great profile of Roger Ailes in their latest issue.

It's mean and nasty, just like the subject of the piece.

Lance Armstrong

I wouldn't want to be Lance Armstrong today. I don't know if you saw the piece on 60 Minutes last night, but it was devastating. (Scott Pelley called it "a painful interview")

I watched the entire interview of Tyler Hamilton, and I consider myself a pretty good judge of people. He was clearly pained to be saying what he was saying, because he didn't want to throw anybody under the bus. He was given immunity, but it was conditional immunity, meaning that if he tells any lies about this case at all--the deal is off the table. If he was lying, it was an Academy Award performance.

He answered every single defense that Lance Armstrong has been using (including "no positive drug tests") and left Armstrong with no out but to call Hamilton a liar. That may work on people that didn't see the interview. It won't work with me.

The End of an Era

The last show is this week, and the New York Times describes it this way: "The last episode of “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” which will be televised on Wednesday, is the biggest such moment in television since Johnny Carson quit “The Tonight Show” two decades ago."

Will Chicago recover? Oprah Is Moving On.

LinkedIn more than doubles value

LinkedIn went public at $49 a share yesterday morning, and at the end of the trading day it was up to $98.25.

At that stock price, LinkedIn is now worth...are you ready for this...$8.91 billion, or about 24 times 2011 revenue.

If I was one of LinkedIn's founders, I'd pull a Mark Cuban and sell it all now. Settle for a billion or two and get out of there before everyone realizes what they've done.

Dick Ebersol Quits

Another sign that the NBC-Comcast marriage is a little rocky: The man that ran NBC Sports, the big cheese behind the award winning Olympic coverage, abruptly resigned yesterday after he and the new boss couldn't come to terms.

The New York Times has the story.