No doors revolve faster than the media?s, but even then 2011 was a big year for departures. Some of the biggest names in the business jumped ship this year. Others were politely pushed off the plank. And the death of one came only months after his initiation into the media mogul club.
In 2011?s biggest media scandal, two of Rupert Murdoch?s favorites, Dow Jones chief executive Les Hinton and News International CEO Rebekah Brooks were forced to resign after The Guardian exposed phone hacking practices at The News of the World, a British newspaper that was part of Murdoch?s News Corp. Hinton had once been in Brooks?s position and repeatedly testified that the initial phone-hacking charge, involving missing teenager Milly Dowler, was an isolated incident. (He later acknowledged he was wrong.)
Continue ReadingInitially at least, the departures helped Murdoch, News Corp.?s CEO and chairman, and his son James, the chairman of News International, dodge a bullet. In addition to providing them with fall guys, Hinton?s claims that he did not know about the hacking practices bolstered the Murdoch?s own case for plausible deniability. And so as the summer dragged on into the fall, Murdoch closed the News of the World and he and James withstood a barrage of new criticisms and new accusations.
But the latest news out of London doesn?t bode well for the baron?s son. James already has admitted to attending a 2008 meeting regarding the phone hacking, and emails show that he may have been privy to such discussions more than once, despite his testifying to the contrary. Meanwhile, Rupert?s reputation has been severely tarnished, and there?s even speculation that he might soon be called back to hearings in parliament.
National Public Radio CEO Vivian Schiller also resigned from her office amid controversy: In March, a videotape surfaced showing fellow NPR executive Ron Schiller (no relation) calling Republicans ?anti-intellectual? and the tea party ?racist.? The footage, part of a sting operation set up by activist James O?Keefe, became fodder for right-wing critics who were already critical of NPR?s liberal leanings after the poorly handled firing of Juan Williams, the conservative pundit who went to Fox News.
?This, to me, is finally a window into how they really think,? Williams said of the sting video in a segment on Fox. ?It?s like you were tuning your radio and just by accident you got the right wavelength and you?re finally hearing the truth.?
Forced out by the board, according to at least one account, Vivian Schiller moved on to a chief digital officer role at NBC News. But the damage to NPR?s reputation continues, especially as it fights for public funding in Washington.
Bill Keller, who successfully navigated The New York Times out of the troubled Howell Raines era, stepped down from his editorship this year. Keller was by all accounts a strong editor, but he proved more problematic moonlighting as in-house Luddite for the paper?s magazine, earning a barrage of criticism ? and grumbles from his more forward-thinking and tech-savvy staff ? with columns decrying Twitter and warning of the dangers of aggregation.
In one column, Keller managed to criticize the media?s obsession with itself by obsessing over himself, and then pivot to an all-out attack on Arianna Huffington that stirred up weeks of the very sort of navel-gazing he had just bemoaned. At one point during the gig, New York magazine reported, Times media editor Bruce Headlam and media columnist David Carr felt compelled to stage an intervention.
Keller was replaced by Jill Abramson, and now writes his column ? albeit it to less fanfare ? for the Sunday Review section. Meanwhile, the paper struggles with the recent and abrupt departure of another leader, chief executive Janet Robinson. Robinson, who took the post in 2004 and led the paper through the onslaught of the recession, retired without explanation in December. The Times now faces an uncertain future, as publisher and interim chief executive Arthur Sulzberger Jr. searches for a new leader.
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