-By Warner Todd Huston
Apparently the long knives President Obama has out for the blood of CEOs and high paid executives does not apply to the bigwigs at The New York Times. In a March 11 piece ABCnews.com posted a Reuters report that the suits at The Times are still doing quite well despite the downwardly spiraling fortunes of the newspaper they helm. Not only are salaries holding steady, even rising, but they are also receiving bonuses. All of this while profits have plummeted along with advertising sales.
While other large corporations are freezing executive salaries and or even cutting them, the top two NYT execs have seen salaries holding at the same rate since 2006 if not rising. Arthur Sulzberger, Jr, even got a one-time bonus of $38,045. NYT CEO Janet Robinson saw her total compensation rise from $4.1 million to $5.8 over last year.
So, where is President Obama to ask for their heads on a pike?
Who can deny that what we have here are executive officers at the head of a corporation that is failing yet they are getting all sorts of bonuses and keeping their high salaries untouched by the ravages of business losses resulting from their incompetent leadership?
Isn’t this exactly the sort of thing that Obama has made the heart of his attack on private businesses? So where is the searing Obama remarks against The New York Times?
In truth, I no more care to hear Obama’s opinion on the ineptitude of the NYT than I want to hear his opinion of any other private business. If the boards and shareholders of these business are happy with their failed CEOs, who are we to say anything different? And who is Obama to meddle?
But, what we have here is a matter of hypocrisy. While Obama cruises the country in Marine and Airforce One on his perpetual election campaign plying his populist anti-corporate rhetoric, the NYT is curiously not on his list of naughty executives.
Could it be that Obama hasn’t mentioned the overpaid and failing execs at The New York Times because he doesn’t want to bite the hand that inks him?
Whatever the case, it is quite interesting that while other CEOs are being held accountable for the failures under their leadership and finding their pay slashed accordingly, the fat cats as The Times are still partying like it’s 2006.
Party on Art. Party on Janet. Campaign on Barack.
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, Human Events Magazine, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
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