SLudge: CBS Boss Endorses Bush

[gp]

frontpage sludge news ( www.drudgereport.com )

Guess Who's a GOP Booster?
The CEO of CBS's parent company endorses President Bush

Friday, September 24, 2004 12:01 a.m. EDT

From The Asian Wall Street Journal

With the scandal at CBS still festering, questions are being raised about whether a felony was committed when the network broadcast apparently forged memos in an attempt to discredit George W. Bush. Yesterday, the chairman of CBS's parent company chose Hong Kong as a place to drop a little bomb. Sumner Redstone, who calls himself a "liberal Democrat," said he's supporting President Bush.

The chairman of the entertainment giant Viacom said the reason was simple: Republican values are what U.S. companies need. Speaking to some of America's and Asia's top executives gathered for Forbes magazine's annual Global CEO Conference, Mr. Redstone declared: "I look at the election from what's good for Viacom. I vote for what's good for Viacom. I vote, today, Viacom.

"I don't want to denigrate Kerry," he went on, "but from a Viacom standpoint, the election of a Republican administration is a better deal. Because the Republican administration has stood for many things we believe in, deregulation and so on. The Democrats are not bad people. . . . But from a Viacom standpoint, we believe the election of a Republican administration is better for our company."

Article: http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110005669

[calico1]

1. Good.

Americans need to hear more and more what Republican "values" really stand for and who they benefit.

[President Jesus]

27. Odd. Sumner is a huge Dem donor that hasn't given a cent to *

complete list of campaign contributions:
http://www.newsmeat.com/fec/bystate_detail.php?last=Redstone&first=Sumner

[trueblew]

31. Flip Flopper? n/t

[President Jesus]

40. More like a publicity stunt to get freeps off CBS's back! (nt)

[kokomo]

54. Redstone already flip-flopped, changed name from Murray Rothstein....

Sounds like he has joined the growing league of former "liberals" who have become Zionist neoCons.

[sadiesworld]

50. Maybe he's simply decided to give up the pretense.

[Nightjock]

2. Sounds like a backhanded endorsement to me.

[Jack_Dawson]

3. "Rich Guy Picks Bush"

Where's the news?

[AspenRose]

9. In other news:

Sun rises in east and water is wet....

[Jack_Dawson]

10. LOL do you listen to Jim Rome?

That's a Rome-ism.

[liveoaktx]

4. Can there be any doubt about Media as Corporation Greed?

[shawn703]

5. Is he being facetious?

After all, he is a self-described "liberal Democrat". It just seems like he made that comment to play to the stereotype of the rich white Republicans.

[realFedUp]

6. Republican values...deregulation, lower corporate taxes, outsourcing

jobs to reduce overhead, looser environmental rules,
higher stockholder profits, fewer media owners and
more local ownership, less truth, more ads, less news,
more "entertainment", more snake oil, less medicine.

You're with us or against us.
I'm selling Viacom today.

[Wapsie B]

17. Hey outsourcing! You just gave me

a terrific idea for winning back the media! Why don't we encourage people like Redstone to cut costs even further. I mean who needs to pay these big bucks for the bubble heads we have on TV reading off the teleprompters? Let the media outsource the grossly overpaid talking head positions to Indian contractors. Threaten that too long and we'd soon stop seeing the media kissing chimpy's ass. Hey O'Reilly, go plant some potatoes, Raj has your job now.

[realFedUp]

23. LOL. Raj replacing o'really.

They might need subheads but think of
how much money they'd shoot up to the
CEOs.

[Bridget Burke]

34. Many Indians/Pakistanis speak excellent English.

No subtitles needed!

[nolabels]

26. Everybody should perform their labors at less 59 cents a day

Ask any up and coming billionaire





Winston Potato


General Description:

Winston is a first early maturity with early bulking producing high early yields of few large uniform tubers which are round oval with white, smooth skin, creamy flesh, and with shallow eyes They are of low dry matter.
(snip)
http://www.gardenaction.co.uk/fruit_veg_diary/fruit_veg_mini_project_november_1_potato_winston.htm

[w4rma]

7. He's honest. I would probably do the same thing in his position. (nt)

[progressivebydesign]

45. Wow.. you'd vote for someone that is harming your country..

.. because it's good for business? That's just so wrong.

[sadiesworld]

51. May I echo your sentiment?

I am afraid I will regret my chocie of words if I respond directly.

[RobertSeattle]

8. Someone should check Viacom Stock 93-2001 -vs 2001-2004

I'm no stock guru, but check this out.

VIA at the end of CLitnon/Gore: 70 at peak in fall of 2000.

VIA today: 34.02

[onenote]

11. media consolidation

That is the one and only reason that a Republican adminsitration is good for Viacom. Apparently it also is more important to Redstone than concerns about attacks on the first amendment rights of his channels (MTV, CBS, radio stations, etc).

onenote

[BootinUp]

12. "I vote for humungous companies with multimillionaire boards of directors"

Good for you, literally.

[bamacrat]

13. Does it surprise you

it doesn't me. This "endorsement" should outrage everyone. I'm now convinced that the documents were real and that b*sh was a draft dodging monkey boy puke bag. But enough niceties about our "president". Redstone calls himself a liberal Democrat, but yet he says hes better off with a repub administration. wow is he going to get a big ass tax break. oh i see....

[cal04]

49. no surprise here

The outdoor advertising division of Viacom has stopped the Missouri Democratic Party from placing billboards in that state which read, "The Republicans have a plan. You are not part of it!" These ads definitely comply with the published political advertising guidelines used by Viacom. Unfortunately, the Missouri Democratic Party made the mistake of designing ads that are effective in pointing out that the Bush Republicans are advancing an agenda that promotes only Big Business. Big Business is using their market power to hide this fact from the average voter.

It appears that the Corporate Media giants have decided to cripple the efforts of the most effective critics of Bush Republicanism going into the 2004 presidential elections. This started becoming apparent when MoveOn.org was stopped from running relatively mild ads during the Super Bowl criticizing the Bush administration for creating a huge national debt problem for our children to solve in the future. This was done by Viacom while the Bush Republicans did not face similar restrictions. The Bush Republicans have no problem running their highly negative ads.

[Sinnerman]

52. you had to expect that is correct

[hansolsen]

14. The single greatest threat to democracy is corporate ownership of our

once upon a time free press. If Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, Hitler, Stalin, and any other foreign enemy you want to add in amounts to a threat of 5o on a 100 point scale, losing our free press to corporate media ownershp amount to a 100 point threat on the same scale.

[progressivebydesign]

43. Absolutely!!! That's my feeling, too!!! n/t

[Rose Siding]

15. One could make a killing on sheep couture for wolves

A "liberal Democrat" who supports media "deregulation and so on"? Uh huh. More like: I hate myself for being so greedy so I'll cling to a more attractive label.

[trueblew]

16. The election of a Republican administration is better for Corporate Media

Could be an old grudge...Viacom actually has a parent company, National Amusements, Inc. located in Dedham, Massachusetts. National Amusements is the longtime Redstone family business which Sumner decided to work for in the 1950's.

Who knows how many times Kerry and Redstone bumped heads over corporate, political and media issues?

When you take a closer look, there are many parallels between Redstone and Bush Jr's lives.

However, the real issue is Bush is better for the corporate media monoliths and bad for equal access to the airwaves.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

18. Thats IT!!!! Viacom is NOW an enemy too!!!!! Get back Congress....

and the White House!!! EVERY MEDIA CONGLOMERATE WILL BE BROKEN UP!!!

I was ONCE sympathetic to Viacom but no more!!! Viacom is now on the list with TimeWarner, Clear Channel, and NewsCorp!!!

:grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr:

Edit: Even though he endorsed Ahhnuld, Warren Buffett is the BETTER MAN!!! He sees the LIGHT unlike this old washed up POS!!! Buffett has endorsed Kerry for President and is a REAL DEMOCRAT and opposes Bush accross the board!

[trueblew]

22. Here's a partial list...

of what Sumner holds an interest in:

CBS, MTV, Nickelodeon, VH1, BET, Paramount Pictures, Viacom Outdoor, Infinity Broadcasting, UPN, Spike TV, TV Land, Comedy Central, Showtime, Blockbuster, Showcase Cinemas (National Amusements) and Simon & Schuster.

[freemarketer]

19. I'll not watch 60 minutes again. IMO, Karl Rove orchestrated and

conducted the NG Forgeries Caper, but for Redstone to back Monkeyboy, he can go phuck himself.

[cal04]

20. I wouldn't be surprised if someone at Cbs

had something to do with this Dan Rather story

CBS cancels Reagan mini series

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30616FF34540C778CDDA80994DB404482

THE TV AD CBS DOESN'T WANT YOU TO SEE!

http://www.moveon.org/cbs/ad/

[Crunchy Frog]

21. He's just perfectly demonstrated

why we cannot trust the major media not to have conflicts of interest that would prevent them from covering the news in an impartial fashion. They can be trusted to report the news in whatever way most serves the interests of their corporate masters.

I'm currently boycotting all corporate media, making an occasional exception when their is something specific that their showing that I want to see.

I will probably be cutting my cable after the election.

[moondust]

24. Interesting timing.

Why would he make this endorsement NOW? Ha! Transparent.

[JI7]

30. yes, but it's probably a good thing he did so

i'm personally glad he did.

[moondust]

33. No complaints here. n/t

[DeepModem Mom]

25. Redstone's a maxed-out Kerry contributor --

http://www.fundrace.org/neighbors.php?type=name&lname=redstone&fname=&search=Search+by+Name

[sniffa]

36. what's going on here?

the articLe sounds Like he's being sarcastic.

[PittLib]

28. Sumner Redstone is pathetic

and should be crucified.

[candy331]

29. SOOOOO here is the source of the document fogery! Who would

have ever thought.

[Kinkistyle]

32. Sounds like something out of The Onion.

"Mega-Corporation Endorses Bush", or something to that effect. Too bad its all real.

[devinsgram]

35. In otherwards,

We care about our company and not the people.

[dumpster_baby]

37. of COURSE he would endorse Bush--he is RRRIIIIICCCCHHHHH!!!!

What did you expect? Almost ALL rich people will vote for Bush, although I expect a lot of celebrities would not admit. Bush and the GOP (and to a lesser extent the Democratic party) are the Friends Of The Rich (FOTR).

This is a country for the rich, and by the rich.

[legin]

38. Redstone has been out-voted at the board meeting

would be my guess.

This "but from a Viacom standpoint" theme which runs through the article is a bit stilted.

Viacom need to find out what happens to companies who couldn't recognise their 'best interests' if they came up and bit them on the arse.

Boycott, world perhaps more than u.s.

[legin]

39. And Unilever ain't doing too good at the moment

according to quite a few articles in british newspapers just recently.

[yardwork]

41. At least he's honest

All giant corporations benefit from Republican policies. The policies certainly don't benefit people.

It's a simple choice. Vote for huge corporations or vote for people.

[Zynx]

42. At least he was honest about it.

I want money!

[progressivebydesign]

44. Something is WAY fishy...

The guy is a maxed out Kerry donor. A guy who donates to Democrats... is a "liberal democrat", but he's standing up (according to the opinionjournal) and said that he's voting for "VIACOM"???? What does this mean? He's either out of his fucking mind, being facetious, or brings new meaning to the term, CORPORATE WHORE. What is the opinionjournal, anyway?

[w4rma]

47. Opinionjournal = Wall Street Journal (nt)

[David Zephyr]

46. Well, Of Course. Michael Powell Is All About Media Consolidation

CBS/Viacom Chair: "but from a Viacom standpoint, the election of a Republican administration is a better deal. Because the Republican administration has stood for many things we believe in, deregulation and so on. The Democrats are not bad people. . . . But from a Viacom standpoint, we believe the election of a Republican administration is better for our company."

[kwolf68]

48. Wonderful

This is a great endorsement

"I support this guy because well...he will take care of my multi-million dollar corporation. I support this guy, because he takes care of corporate oligarchs who have unlimited resources and power at their disposal."

For a 2nd there I thought this endorsement would help the DimSon

[saracat]

53. Sounds like they were threatened!

CBS is a very Dem leaning Company and Les Moonves has endorsed Kerry. Plus the endorsement is worded oddly. "Best for Viacom?"

[leesa]

55. Bush, The King of Greed

All the greedy bow down to him. Even the greedy poor. Some guy on Air America last night was willing to sell out his countries future for the 890.00 tax cut he got. The host let him know it had just been an advance, which he didn't know. Republicans only see $$$.