Richard Parsons CAN'T be this much of a maroon, can he?

[J Lee]

When I posted about a week ago after Gerald Levin announced that he was stepping down from AOL Time Warner next year that surely CEO Steve Case wouldn't be stupid enough to allow Ted Turner back into power, apparently, I was mistaken, (http://www.emonline.com/topstorys/121001parsons.html)at least according to this story about Levin's sucessor, Richard Parsons.

Either Parsons is just blowing smoke to placate the company's biggest stockholder, or Ted did make a behind the scenes power play to get back into the game, something I didn't think he could do. The third possiblity is that Parsons -- and Case, if he agrees with the plan -- really are as Bugs would say, maroons.

If either of the last two possibilites are the case, it means political correctness will be around for a while longer at Cartoon Network and on the other AOL Time Warner channels. Too bad...

[Emmanuel Cruz]

Oh, great. The screwball return. I don't even wanna know what's gonna happen from all this.

Parsons, you dope! How can you do this to us?!

[Matthew Hunter]

Aw, &(@%!
-Matthew

[Sogturtle]

Originally posted by J Lee
When I posted about a week ago after Gerald Levin announced that he was stepping down from AOL Time Warner next year that surely CEO Steve Case wouldn't be stupid enough to allow Ted Turner back into power, apparently, I was mistaken, (http://www.emonline.com/topstorys/121001parsons.html)at least according to this story about Levin's sucessor, Richard Parsons.

Either Parsons is just blowing smoke to placate the company's biggest stockholder, or Ted did make a behind the scenes power play to get back into the game, something I didn't think he could do. The third possiblity is that Parsons -- and Case, if he agrees with the plan -- really are as Bugs would say, maroons.

If either of the last two possibilites are the case, it means political correctness will be around for a while longer at Cartoon Network and on the other AOL Time Warner channels. Too bad...

John~

Our actual thread on the subject is found at ...
http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?threadid=13857

Since the article you cite emphasizes Mr. Parsons as a "peacemaker" it raises the question of "A peacemaker?... Between what feuding parties??". With Levin quitting (or whatever) and Ted shucked from his job like a snake sheds its old skin, then where is the real war??? Supposedly Levin had the unflinching support of Steve Case (for whatever that was worth). Buuuuut if there is simmering war then it might well point to unhappy human shareholders (as opposed to corporate or institutional owners). Turner indeed has a massive block of stock, but according to one former Time-Warner employee there was a very, very unhappy person with an even bigger block of stock... If this is so then we might be seeing the result of an alliance of these two massive stockholders with the secret goal of retaking the company, and the worry it is creating in the boardroom, and with real powerholders Levin and Case.

Annnnnnd the notion of combining the cable systems with the ATT cable systems as a separate spin-off company is one of the stupidest ideas to come down yet (the killing the Warners cartoon studio and Warner stores were utterly asinine!!). ATT itself spun off Lucent, and Lucent has spun off companies, both with the result of the original company becoming MORE AND MORE SICKLY. Guys, if you can buy ATT's cable systems, fine... but KEEP it all wholly owned. Orrrr just merge with ATT outright :). If you want to spin something off afterwards then how about AOL with Steve Case and Ted Turner on board...