I came across (via Michelle Chen) a list of CEO/average worker pay ratios that Bloomberg (4/30/13) compiled earlier this year. The thing that struck me is how many television companies were near the top of the list—despite their average workers getting considerably more than an average wage.
Les Moonves (cc photo: David Shankbone)
The list looks at the top 250 publicly traded companies on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index—sorted by whose CEO gets paid the most compared to their company’s average workers. Almost at the head of the list, at No. 6, is Leslie Moonves of CBS, who makes 1,111 times what an average CBS employee does: $69.9 million vs. $62,930.
Not far behind, at No. 17, is Walt Disney Co.‘s Robert Iger, who with $40.2 million in annual compensation makes 613 times average employees at ABC, ESPN and other Disney properties, who make an estimated $65,650 a year.
Rupert Murdoch (cc photo: World Economic Forum)
News Corp‘s Rupert Murdoch, the CEO behind Fox and Fox News, is 35th on the list, making $30 million a year, 457 times his employees’ $65,650. Brian Roberts of Comcast, which owns NBC and MSNBC, comes next at No. 36, with a $26.9 million payday, 428 times the $62,930 his workers get.
Beyond the Big 4, the CEOs of other TV companies are also near the top of the list: Discovery‘s David Zaslav is at No. 9, Viacom‘s Philippe Dauman is at No. 27 and Time Warner‘s Jeffrey Bewkes is No. 41. Note that all these TV bosses are in the top 20 percent in terms of how much more they make than their employees.
So if you ever wonder why rising inequality isn’t a big story for TV news, keep in mind that for the people in command at these networks, massive disparity of wealth isn’t a problem—it’s a way of life.
It is time to resurrect a forgotten word – Plutocracy,
It appears that most ‘democratic’ nations – without doubt those in the EU and the US – have become plutocracies – government by the wealthy for the wealthy.
Perhaps if we started to acknowledge such, it would be simpler to understand what is now going on in today’s world of ‘austerity’ budgets forced onto the average citizen by those who remain wholly unaffected by such.
The consolidation of the media into so few hands has not only destroyed news integrity, but quality in the arts – music, film, books, tv, etc. that these same mega corporations control. That’s why I’ve been leading an art revolution against the Big 6 for decades.
A failure to recognize and respond to the American plutocracy reduces media coverage of political events to nothing more than propaganda for the very wealthy, who now possess greater wealth than has ever been known in the United States, and there is no major media outlet with the courage and integrity to tell the American people that their democracy has been destroyed. Not compromised, destroyed.
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I wasn’t wondering; there was no doubt in my mind as to the why it wasn’t news. We lost the integrity that would have allowed the media to be our watchdog, many decades ago when they FCC continued to play up to the farce that the public airways were really owned by the public. The Media have controlled the news outlets since the time of Ben Franklin. Nope the only news is that more people still believe that Fair And Balanced still exist,
Good catch FAIR.Now lets expand….Go to some of Hollywoods biggest names(and strangely biggest libs and talk a good talk on being against this)Who make 30-40 mill a shot as opposed to….well everybody else on the films.Same thing for TV.What does a cameraman make as measured against Sophia Vergara on that show.How about the editors on the Kardashian shows as opposed by …the kardashians?How about sports?Whats Jeeter make as measured against the bat boy.How about politics?What will president Obama earn in his first 5 years after his presidency(100-200 mill?).How much will his secret service detail earn.How about Paul Mccartney on tour.How much are his drivers earning?We could go on all day.Im being silly of course.But I know a lot of you think this way.
The TV industry, being at the top the CEO/average worker pay ratios, is understandably reluctant to broadcast growing income inequality. After all, the industry would not wish to kill the goose that laid the golden egg, i.e. the suckers born every minute looking for information in the wrong place.
But it is those same suckers that are the bottom of the growing inequality of income and information. The public debate is certainly shallow on the streets of America. Perhaps the public schools have only been warehousing the young rather than facilitating their growth in critical thinking and self-governing.
Ernest, perhaps?????How about positively.
Five questions ?????