Re: owners and their political views

[Donna Halper <dlh@donnahalper.com>]

>about Sumner Redstone, it was writtten--
>   The final decision not to celebrate the new president was made by
>   Sumner Redstone, CEO of VIACOM, MTV's parent company, according to
>   sources.

No offence, but if Matt Drudge writes something, I tend to be 
skeptical.  As for Mr Redstone, my well-informed sources say he didn't 
think it was worth the expense-- more a reflection of the influence of Mel 
Karmazin (his new business partner) than Sumner.  Mel is totally 
apolitical, based on what I have seen.  He is, as others have noted, very 
bottom-line oriented.  I mean, at the risk of upsetting the WBZ folks who 
monitor this list, there had been a big event planned to celebrate WBZ-TV's 
50th anniversary, but it was deemed to costly, and it was cancelled.  I 
have the feeling Redstone would not have been encouraged to throw a big 
party for Bush OR for Gore-- Mr Karmazin is not fond of company money being 
spent in this way, based on what I know about his priorities.