ABC News Chief Is Said to Be Resigning

[alp227]

Source: The New York Times

David Westin, the longtime president of ABC News, is said to have told several top staff members that he will resign on Tuesday.

The decision, one of the staff members said on Monday night, relates to a long-running conflict between Mr. Westin and the management of the network, including ABC’s parent company, the Walt Disney Company, over the financial standing of the news division.

Mr. Westin could not be reached for comment on Monday. He is expected to address the staff on Tuesday, an ABC News employee said, and to promise to remain in the position until the end of the year.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/07/business/media/07abc.html

[Bozita]

1. "over the financial standing of the news division" - says it all

[PSPS]

8. You've got that right. Chayefsky sure predicted what TV 'news' would turn into.

[Crowman1979]

2. Oh No! Another corporate news media outlet going under!

:sarcasm: Let me break out my Violin. :nopity:

[valerief]

3. Yeah! Where will we get our lies now????

:cry:

[Bolo Boffin]

9. The funny thing is it's not going under

The unit is profitable.

Disney wants it to be 15% profitable. It's only 5%.

Madness, in other words.

[Dulcinea]

15. We have a winner! *ding*ding*

News is expected to turn a big quarterly profit like every other corporate division.

But news doesn't work like any other corporate division. The bean counters don't get that.

[Kablooie]

4. Disney wants to compete more directly with Fox I'd bet.

[madamesilverspurs]

6. "Compete" with Fox?

I'd be more inclined to believe they want to climb into bed with Murdoch. It was ABC that did the asinine movie about 9-11 that tried to blame Clinton while whitewashing Bush/Cheney and crew. Weather report is the only thing I've trusted them on since, and they're often wrong on that, too.


-

[progressoid]

5. Their "news" has been sucking shit for so long,

I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing.

[jaysunb]

10. I'm with you on both accounts.

Their anti Democratic bias is more than obvious. :evilfrown:

[SpiralHawk]

11. ABC is just more RepubliCorporate agitprop

Ptoooey - no cred. Will not watch their spin.

[Joanne98]

7. YAY

[oldhippydude]

12. even in the old days.. ABC never did news well..

they couldn't compete with the likes of CronKite, or the Huntley Brinkley report..

[Lost4words]

13. hi, welcome to DU

:hi:

[HughBeaumont]

14. The Path to 9/11 and their treatment of Ellen is all you need to know about that bit of bad news.

Clenis-blaming and homophobia is now standardized media practice, apparently.