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Government presses for gay-couple rights
swissinfo April 22, 2005 3:02 PM
Justice Minister Christoph Blocher has called on Swiss voters to back a new partnership law for gays and lesbians on June 5.
Blocher said the nationwide vote was not about promoting homosexuality but enshrining greater rights for gay couples within the law.
The authorities say the proposed gay partnership has nothing to do with marriage (Keystone)
Justice Minister Christoph Blocher has called on Swiss voters to back a new partnership law for gays and lesbians on June 5.
Blocher said the nationwide vote was not about promoting homosexuality but enshrining greater rights for gay couples within the law.
At a news conference in Bern on Friday, Blocher said the law would bring improvements in the areas of inheritance and pensions. Couples entering registered partnerships would have certain rights and obligations.
The minister said that while current legislation generally allowed for single-sex couples to be treated in the same way as their heterosexual counterparts, "there is a need that these unions be considered registered partnerships in the way that marriages are".
But he stressed that gay partnerships would not have the same status as traditional marriages and that homosexual couples would not be allowed to adopt children or have access to fertility treatment.
"A registered partnership is not a marriage, it is an institution for those people who by definition cannot marry."
A yes vote on June 5 would give a legal framework to gay rights and show the world that Switzerland had a progressive policy, Blocher said.
Zurich experience
In canton Zurich 483 same-sex couples have registered their partnerships since a cantonal law came into effect on July 1, 2003.
Markus Notter, a member of Zurich’s cantonal government, said there had been a big response with 93 female and 390 male couples registering in the canton.
Notter said that although the experience in Zurich had been a positive one, the absence of nationwide legislation had caused problems. Three registered partnerships had since been dissolved because the couples concerned had moved out of Zurich.
Similarly couples arriving in Zurich from Geneva or abroad, where their partnerships had been registered, had been obliged to re-register with the Zurich authorities.
Ruth Reusser, deputy director of the justice ministry, stressed that the law was necessary to regulate inheritance and pension issues, as well as the right of foreign partners to live in Switzerland.
Comparing Switzerland with other European countries, Reusser said that while neighbours Italy and Austria do not have rights for gay couples enshrined in law, both the Netherlands and Belgium allow gay marriages.
Spain’s parliament gave initial approval to a law legalising gay marriage on Thursday.
swissinfo with agencies
Ads to target new gay-rights law
By MARK PETERS, Portland Press Herald Writer
AUGUSTA — Lobsterman Dan Riley will become a new voice today for the campaign to overturn a law that forbids discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Over the next week, radio listeners will hear Riley, a 42-year-old Beals Island resident, in an ad that picks apart the gay-rights law and takes jabs at Gov. John Baldacci and the Maine Legislature.
The heavy rotation of the radio spot, coupled with upcoming newspaper ads, will launch a media campaign by the Christian Civic League of Maine. The statewide evangelical organization wants to build opposition to the law, in part through the radio ad that will run on several Maine stations.
"I am a representative of just a lot of everyday folks out there who have strong feelings about this," Riley said Thursday.
Supporters of the anti-discrimination law don't plan to respond with their own ads at this point. But Maine Won't Discriminate, which is leading the effort to keep the law from being overturned, has hired the veteran political consultant Dennis Bailey to run its campaign.
"We think it is important for people to understand there are going to be lies," said Bailey, who was Gov. Angus King's press secretary and ran a successful campaign in 2003 to defeat a ballot proposal for a tribal casino. Supporters hoped to build a complex in Sanford.
Now at stake is a law that was passed late last month. It protects gays and lesbians against discrimination in the workplace, housing and other areas. The Maine Human Rights Commission and the state court system could enforce the protections.
Fundamentalist Christians are leading the push to overturn the law through a petition process known as a people's veto. They have until late June to collect 50,519 signatures to force a statewide vote. Similar gay-rights legislation was rejected at the ballot box in 1998 and 2000.
The drive to gather signatures has started. Michael Heath, the Christian Civic League's executive director, said more than 800 people have volunteered to help collect signatures.
He said fund raising by the political action committee Coalition for Marriage is going well.
Heath said that in the 1998 and 2000 campaigns, the Christian Civic League lacked the money to buy large chunks of air time. But concerns throughout the country over the possibility of same-sex marriage have caused donations to go up this time, he said.
The radio message is meant to alert Mainers to the petition drive. It also promotes an upcoming rally at the State House to highlight opposition in the state to same-sex marriage.
Riley, the voice in the radio ad, said he isn't politically active but has real concerns that the anti-discrimination law will lead to same-sex marriage. He said gays and lesbians live a sinful lifestyle.
Raising concerns about same-sex marriage is part of the confusion tactic that Heath and others are using to sell their petition drive to voters, Bailey said.
The law passed last month is about preventing discrimination against gays and lesbians, he said, and its supporters, including several lawmakers, plan to spend the coming weeks telling people that.
Proponents of the law will point to how a majority of lawmakers, including Republicans and Democrats, approved it. Bailey said that when this and other facts emerge, Mainers will decide not to overturn the law.
Baldacci, who is criticized in the radio ad as being out of step with most Mainers, reiterated through his spokesman, Lynn Kippax, how the anti-discrimination law was the right choice for the state.
The governor does not have any plans to do radio or television commercials to promote the law, but will do whatever is necessary to ensure it isn't vetoed, Kippax said.
Staff Writer Mark Peters can be contacted at 623-1031 or at:
mpeters@pressherald.com
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Television Industry Profile
http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/profile/brdcst_1469.html
While it may sometimes seem like the film industry's less glamorous cousin, the TV industry is still a huge moneymaker. Every day the TV industry has its own version of a competitive reality show called the Nielsen's race. Locked in a battle for the advertising dollar, television broadcasters compare ratings on a daily, weekly, monthly, and seasonal basis to see who wins the most viewers in the most desirable demographics.
For the 2003-04 season, CBS took the prize in terms of overall viewership in part because of its successful "CSI" crime dramas and the continuing "Survivor" series. NBC had a good year and finished in second place on the strength of the final seasons of both Friends and Frasier, as well as the new reality darling The Apprentice. Helping ease the pain from losing its Friends, the network in 2004-05 launched Joey, a spinoff of the popular sitcom starring Matt LeBlanc. Third place FOX had a year of both successes and failures. Few of its new offerings survived the season, with the exception of teen soap The O.C., but American Idol still performed extremely well and kept the network's overall ratings from tumbling. Meanwhile, ABC had a disatrous year with a string of failures and finished the season in fourth place. The network reshuffled management in an effort to pull itself out of the doldrums.
The WB has attracted a following of younger viewers with targeted programming ("Smallville, Gilmore Girls"). But it is trying to court an older market in the 2004-05 season in an effort to broaden its appeal. (Older skewing shows include Summerland and Everwood). UPN is still struggling at the bottom of the pack with sagging ratings for its offerings ("WWE, Enterprise"). However, the sixth place network has found a couple modest hits in the reality genre with America's Top Model and Amish in the City, and its new dramas (Kevin Hill, Veronica Mars) have garnered positive buzz.
Cable and pay networks have taken a bite out of the traditional network turf, with shows such as "The Sopranos" on pay network HBO and Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica on teen favorite MTV snagging decent ratings and fan bases. Even so, the top rated cable programs only have about half the audience of the top rated network shows, but recent signs show that they are closing the gap. Other breakout cable hits include the makeover show Queer Eye for the Straight Guy on Bravo, police drama The Shield and plastic surgery drama Nip/Tuck on FX, and SCI-FI's Stargate: SG-1 and Stargate: Atlantis.
Content-wise, reality TV has encroached on the turf once owned by scripted drama and comedy programs. Reality programs regularly score in the top rated programs including hits such as ABC's "The Bachelor", CBS's "Survivor", NBC's The Apprentice, and FOX's "American Idol". The proliferation of reality programming can be attributed to the shows' low production costs and high ratings.
With the competition from cable becoming more and more fierce, the broadcast networks have begun rolling out new shows year round, instead of sticking to the traditional "Fall Season" preceded by a summer full of reruns. The trend started at FOX, which had enormous success with the summer premiere of The O.C. in 2003.
Meanwhile, a consolidation in the industry has left many players under the wings of larger parents, resulting in cross promotion of programming and sharing of resources and staff. For example, media powerhouse Viacom owns broadcast nets CBS and UPN as well as pay-TV channel Showtime and cable channels MTV, VH1, Comedy Central, BET, Nick at Night, and many others. Time Warner owns pay-TV channels HBO and Cinemax as well as cable company Turner Broadcasting System, which houses CNN, TNT, and a stake in The WB network, among other channels. News Corporation's Fox Entertainment Group owns FOX Broadcasting, as well as cable channels FX and the Fox News Channel. NBC merged with movie and television production company Universal to form a new company called NBC Universal. The move combines the #2 network with cable channels such as Bravo and USA Network. Disney owns ABC and its cable siblings ABC Family, ESPN, the Disney Channel, and has stakes in other cable stations.
The FCC decided in 2003 to loosen media ownership rules, which will likely result in more consolidation. The changes included allowing companies to own a newspaper and a broadcast outlet in the same market and allowing companies to own TV stations that reach a combined US audience of 45%, increased from the previous 35% limit. Critics of the FCC's decision argue that the changes will allow media conglomerates to grow even larger, which will limit the numbers of sources of news and information in some cities to just one or two companies. Companies that own both newspapers and TV stations across the country such as Tribune, Gannett, and Media General would likely benefit by the change. TV station groups Sinclair and LIN TV also will likely add stations to their stables as a result of the wider audience limits.
Television broadcasters also are working toward a government-imposed 2006 deadline to provide High Definition Television (HDTV) for viewers. While broadcasters have begun to provide digital transmission of programs, it is the viewers who may hold things up. So far, only about 1% of US households have purchased the expensive new TVs or converters required for HDTV reception.
dowwwnnnnn.
im just amazed its been 6 years now and we still dont know if we have carriers or not.
could make a lot more money than being "long" :)
Same-Sex Marriage Passes First Big Hurdle In Spain
by Malcolm Thornberry 365Gay.com European Bureau Chief
Posted: April 21, 2005 11:02 am ET
(Madrid) Spain's lower house on Thursday passed legislation to legalize same-sex marriage.
The bill to allow gay marriage was relatively short, saying that "Matrimony shall have the same requisites and effects regardless of whether the persons involved are of the same or different sex''.. It also allows gays to adopt children.
The measure passed with 183 votes in favor, 136 against and six abstentions. It now goes to the Senate where Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's Socialists have ample support.
The Senate will vote in the coming weeks and the first same-sex marriages could begin this summer.
Zapatero announced he would bring in the legislation shortly after his Socialist party's stunning win at the polls last year. (story)
It was immediately condemned by the Catholic Church and Zapatero was summoned to Rome for a lecture by Pope John Paul. (story) Nevertheless, Zapatero and his government refused to bow under the pressure.
In an opinion poll on the issue carried out by the government-run Centre for Sociological Investigations last June, 66 per cent of Spaniards favoured legalizing gay marriage, while 26 per cent were opposed.
Homosexuality was banned during Franco's 1939-1975 dictatorship. Spain's liberal 1978 constitution outlawed sexual discrimination and homosexuality was decriminalized shortly afterwards.
Same-sex marriage is legal in Holland and Belgium. Most other European Union countries have some provision for recognizing those in committed same-sex relationships. In December Britain will open its registry for Civil Unions.
In North America most of Canada has legalized same-sex marriage and a bill to expand that throughout the country is currently before Parliament. Massachusetts is the only US state to legalize same-sex marriage, although Civil Unions are legal in Vermont and Connecticut, and several other states including California have domestic partner registries.
©365Gay.com 2005
http://www.365gay.com/newscon05/04/042105spain.htm
GOP Threatens DC Mayor Over Gay Marriage
by Paul Johnson 365Gay.com Washington Bureau Chief
Posted: April 21, 2005 5:01 pm ET
(Washington) Republicans in Congress have issued a veiled threat to DC mayor Anthony Williams that if his administration recognizes same-sex marriages performed in Massachusetts or Canada the District could face a battle over funding.
Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kansas) issued the warning after D.C. Attorney General Robert J. Spagnoletti issued a legal yesterday that legally married gay couples could file joint city tax returns. (story)
The legal opinion carried the caveat that the final decision would be up to the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue which is semi-autonomous.
Brownback is the new chair of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on the District and a co-sponsor of the Federal Marriage Amendment.
"I was hopeful we weren't going to be confronting this issue. But it appears there will need to be a review and a discussion," Brownback told the Washington Post.
The District's $8 billion budget requires annual approval by Congress.
Williams told the Post that the D.C government "will have a decision soon" but declined to say whether the District would recognize same-sex marriages performed in Massachusetts or Canada.
He told the paper that while he supports same-sex marriage, "My personal opinion and what I do as a matter of the public policy of the District sometimes may be aligned and sometimes may be different."
The District, which has a higher percentage of same-sex couples living together than any U.S. city after San Francisco, according to census figures.
©365Gay.com 2005
SCENE magazine AD picture...
found this somewhere..
just wish the person who took it could of gotten closer to the pic so we could make out the wording on the bottom...
"I also applied to be the moderator of this page I will take it back and make it a place where the truth and PR's are not twisted Like today."
sure thing sparky.. LOL
Microsoft Comes Under Fire for Reversal on Gay Rights Bill
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/22/national/22gay.html?hp&ex=1114142400&en=aa45245bf98f2bcd&a....
By SARAH KERSHAW
Published: April 22, 2005
EATTLE, April 21 - The Microsoft Corporation, at the forefront of corporate gay rights for decades, came under fire from gay rights groups, politicians and its own employees on Thursday after it withdrew its support for a state bill that would have barred discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
Many of the critics accused the company of bowing to pressure from a prominent evangelical church in Redmond, Wash., located a few blocks from Microsoft's sprawling headquarters.
The bill, or similar versions of it, had been voted down here over three decades; it failed by one vote Thursday in the State Senate. Gay rights advocates denounced Microsoft, which supported the bill in previous years, for abandoning their cause. Blogs and online chat rooms were buzzing on Thursday with accusations that the company had caved to the Christian right, and that it had betrayed its many gay employees.
"Apparently Microsoft's new motto is, 'It's your potential, our passion - as long as you're not gay or lesbian,' " said Ken Kully, a board member of Equal Rights Washington, a gay rights group that lobbied on behalf of the failed bill, referring to the Microsoft's latest advertising slogan.
Microsoft officials denied any connection between their decision not to endorse the bill, which was supported by many other high-tech companies and multinational corporations, and the church's opposition, although they acknowledged meeting twice with the church minister, Ken Hutcherson.
Dr. Hutcherson, pastor of the Antioch Bible Church, who has organized several rallies opposing same-sex marriage here and in Washington, D.C., said he had threatened in those meetings to organize a national boycott of Microsoft products. State Representative Ed Murray, an openly gay Democrat and sponsor of the bill, said that late last month he had conversations with high-level Microsoft employees who mentioned the boycott threat and said that they could not support the bill this year.
After Dr. Hutcherson told Microsoft that he would organize the boycott, "they backed off," the pastor said in a telephone interview Thursday. "I told them I was going to give them something to be afraid of Christians about," he said.
Microsoft's decision not to endorse the anti-discrimination bill and its meetings with Dr. Hutcherson were first reported Thursday by The Stranger, an alternative weekly newspaper in Seattle.
The bill would have extended protections against discrimination in employment, housing and other fields to gay men and lesbians.
Microsoft officials said that the meetings with the minister did not persuade them to back away from supporting the bill, but that they had already decided to take a "neutral" position on it. They said they examined their legislative priorities and decided that because they already offer extensive benefits to gay employees and that King County, where Microsoft is based, already prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, with a law as stringent as what the state bill proposed, they were focusing on other legislative matters.
"Our government affairs team made a decision before this legislative session that we would focus our energy on a limited number of issues that are directly related to our business," said Mark Murray, a company spokesman. "That decision was not influenced by external factors. It was driven by our desire to focus on a smaller number of issues in this short legislative session. We obviously have not done a very good job of communicating about this issue."
Mr. Murray added that company officials had met twice with Dr. Hutcherson but that it was "long after our decision to focus on a tighter legislative agenda."
"We're disappointed that people are misinterpreting those meetings," he said.
But Representative Murray said that in a conversation last month with Bradford L. Smith, Microsoft's senior vice president and general counsel, Mr. Smith had made it clear to him that the company was under pressure from the church and the pastor and that he was also concerned about the reaction to company support of the bill among its Christian employees, the lawmaker said.
Mr. Smith would not comment for this article.
Mr. Murray said that in a recent conversation with Mr. Smith, Mr. Smith said that the minister had demanded the company fire Microsoft employees who testified this year on behalf of the bill, but that Mr. Smith had refused. Mr. Smith also said, according to Mr. Murray, that the minister had threatened to boycott the company if it did not withdraw its support for the bill and that the company was going to take a "neutral" position on the bill this year.
According to Mr. Murray, Mr. Smith said "that while he did not do the many things that the minister had requested, including firing employees who had testified for the bill, he believed that Microsoft could not just respond to one group of employees, when there were other groups of employees who felt much different."
"My refrain back to him was that this is a historic moment, that I only had a few weeks and I wanted Microsoft to do the right thing, to support an issue of justice, an issue of justice of concern to the huge number of his employees who happen to be lesbian and gay," Mr. Murray said. "Their concern, he said, was that obviously they were hearing from fairly conservative employees who were connected to this minister. They needed to sort out how they were going to deal with those problems."
Mr. Murray said the company's contention that the decision not to support the bill had nothing to do with the Christian church was "an absolute lie."
Verizon to launch new TV service
http://www.syracuse.com/entertainment/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/entertainment-8/1114072691151980.....
Verizon to launch new TV service
FiOS TV will carry Bravo, CNBC, MSNBC, Sci-Fi Channel and more.
Thursday, April 21, 2005
By William LaRue
Staff writer
A new TV service that Verizon Communications is launching to compete with satellite and cable is landing on some familiar channels.
The company this week unveiled an agreement for its upcoming FiOS TV to carry Bravo, CNBC, MSNBC, Sci-Fi Channel and others owned by NBC Universal. Recently, Verizon announced deals to carry channels from Starz! and Discovery Networks.
These channels and others will be delivered through Verizon's high-speed fiber-optic lines, which the company is now stringing in New York and 13 other states for its new FiOS service (pronounced FYE-os). The service was launched last August in Keller, Texas, a suburb of Dallas.
Verizon says some parts of Central New York will get FiOS later this year, when customers initially can use it for both telephone calls and super-fast Internet service.
The TV service will come later after it's rolled out late this summer in Keller.
Although details on pricing and channel packages haven't been announced, FiOS TV at first will focus on being an improved version of what viewers get from satellite dishes and cable, according to Verizon spokeswoman Sharon Cohen-Hagar.
"The thinking is, when we go to market, we want to offer customers something that they're familiar with, yet make it a better value for them," Cohen-Hagar says. "Our feeling is, let's not get too far out ahead of the customers."
Verizon will provide all channels with digital quality and some in high-definition, including those available from local broadcasters, she says. The company also plans to bunch channels together with similar themes to make it easier to surf the lineup.
The servicewill feature set-top boxes with an on-screen guide and optional digital video recorders.
Over time, Cohen-Hagar says, FiOS TV will look to exploit fiber's "fat pipe" by offering niche channels and interactive video services not available elsewhere.
Locally, Verizon has begun stringing wires for FiOS in Cicero, Fayetteville and portions of DeWitt, Manlius and the east side of Syracuse. No launch date for the service in Central New York has yet been announced.
As it negotiates with municipalities for video franchise agreements to offer FiOS TV, Verizon says, it will seek to speed things by getting state or federal authorization to launch the service without having to first obtain separate approval from each municipality it serves.
Cohen-Hagar says Verizon believes its existing agreements cover a TV service, although it would go along with a state-mandated payment of a video franchise fee to municipalities. Most cable-television bills locally list this as a 5 percent surcharge.
The Cable Telecommunication Association of New York in March filed a petition with the state Public Service Commission, asking it to prevent Verizon from "illegally constructing cable television systems and jeopardizing public safety" by failing to secure local franchise agreements.
"A franchise document does more than spell out the terms of a franchise fee. It also stipulates customer service requirements. It stipulates who gets to be served," Time Warner Cable spokesman Jeff Unaitis says. "Our customers obviously stand to gain if there's competition, but it's got to be competition on a level playing field."
PSC spokeswoman Anne Dalton says the agency hasn't issued an opinion on allowing FiOS TV to avoid negotiating local franchise agreements, adding that Verizon hasn't filed a request on this issue.
TV ad calls for fairness toward gay athletes
Larry Buhl, PlanetOut Network
Wednesday, April 20, 2005 / 05:37 PM
A new television ad encouraging "a level playing field" for LGBT and straight athletes debuted Wednesday before the USA cable network broadcast of "Ring of Fire," a true story about a boxing champion who struggled with his sexual orientation.
Created by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the ad includes images and names of openly gay professional athletes such as Billy Bean, Rosie Jones and Esera Tuaolo, and a voice-over that salutes all athletes "including gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender athletes who have played to the highest level." HRC said the ad promotes the goal of letting everyone, regardless of orientation, have an equal shot at competing openly and honestly.
"For LGBT athletes, the opportunity to play often involves extra hurdles of discrimination, and it is time that we level that playing field," said HRC President Joe Solmonese.
The ad comes on the heels of a poll in which 86 percent of respondents said openly gay athletes should not be excluded from team sports, while 68 percent thought being out would hurt an athlete's career.
"Our hope is that this ad will reach America's LGBT youth, who may feel alone and unwelcome so that they will know that they are welcome and deserving on all playing fields, just like anyone else," said Solmonese. "From professional competition to playground baseball games, everyone competes at a higher level and goes further when all athletes are allowed an equal chance to play."
The ad is airing in Atlanta, Birmingham, Ala., Denver, Milwaukee, Nashville, Salt Lake City, Topeka and Washington, D.C. For now, HRC plans to air it only in conjunction with USA Network's "Ring of Fire," an 86-minute documentary that explores homosexuality in sports by chronicling the life of six-time world boxing champion Emile Griffith.
Griffith's career and life were defined by a single, tragic event in 1962, when he met Benny "The Kid" Paret, a Cuban exile, for what became their final fight to win the welterweight title.
Griffith, rumored to be gay in boxing circles, rose to fame previously when he won the title from Paret. At the afternoon weigh-in before their fateful final match, Paret stood beside his challenger and whispered "maricon," the Spanish word for "faggot," in Griffith's ear.
Later in the ring, Griffith unleashed a torrent of blows that left Paret dead. Broadcast live on TV, the bout had a lasting impact on the sport and created a political debate over boxing for decades. Griffith, even today, will not explicitly define his sexuality, though in the documentary he implies that he is gay.
http://www.planetout.com/news/article.html?2005/04/20/2
As Viacom splits, Redstone may also
http://business.bostonherald.com/businessNews/view.bg?articleid=79485
As Viacom splits, Redstone may also
By Greg Gatlin/ The Messenger
Thursday, April 21, 2005 - Updated: 09:41 AM EST
Sumner Redstone, the man who wouldn't let go, is apparently starting to let go of day-to-day control of his multibillion-dollar media conglomerate.
Redstone, 82, famously said in 1992 that if he could figure out a way to run Viacom Inc. in the hereafter, from ``up there or down there,'' he would.
But down here, the Boston native - legendary for keeping a tight grip on Viacom and for his workaholism, even as an octogenarian - is said to be spending many of his days happily telecommuting from a Beverly Hills estate, hanging out with his 42-year-old wife and watching tropical fish. This, according to the May 2 issue of Fortune magazine.
A plan to split Viacom's sprawling assets into two companies, one with the Paramount movie studio, MTV and other growing cable networks, the other with the more-mature CBS and UPN television networks, TV and radio stations and publishing operations, is moving forward.
Tom Freston, Viacom's co-president, who will run the cable and movie studio business, told Reuters in Johannesburg, South Africa, yesterday that Redstone would ``step aside'' after Viacom is split, which is planned for early next year if approved by the board in May. Co-President Leslie Moonves will run the other operation.
Redstone had previously suggested he'd step down as CEO by 2007. Still, some analysts don't expect he'll give up real power. Wall Street expects he'll remain chairman of both companies and retain voting power, even if he gives up day-to-day control as CEO next year.
``Anything he says about stepping aside is mere press speak,'' one analyst told me.
A question analysts say Viacom hasn't answered is how voting shares will be treated in a split company. Redstone controls 71 percent of Viacom's shares.
When Viacom divides, one would expect he will have voting control over both companies as well, though Viacom has declined to comment on that.
Talk that Redstone's daughter, Shari Redstone, president of Viacom's Dedham-based parent company National Amusements, would take a significant role running Viacom's day-to-day operations has cooled in the past year. While she may become chairwoman after her father is gone, Redstone has said she won't run the company. Shari Redstone declined to be interviewed through a spokesman yesterday, though she told the Herald a year ago that her chairmanship is a possibility. [continue]
1 / 2 / Next »
[continued from previous page]
Fortune reported the unthinkable: That Redstone has begun to imagine Viacom without him.
There's a legendary account of how Redstone survived a fire in the Copley Plaza Hotel in 1979 by crawling onto a ledge. Despite his legs being burned to the arteries and his arm charred, he hung on until he was rescued.
As for Viacom, it appears Redstone is finally loosening his grip.
SCENE magazine pictures! link
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/fireboy212000/my_photos
what rumours?
stop spreading false rumours...
hes on fire.. lol
hmm, checking my PMs sent to you (3 of them) I don't see anywhere where I said speculation. :)
where did i say that?
please stop posting negative info with no merit!
didnt someone email him and he never responded to their email and phone calls?
"As to getting a qualified,certified audit, I think they'd be hard pressed to find an auditor able to sign off after looking at the last 6 years of history."
Well, Renee did say that while they can pass a financial audit, they cannot pass an Edgar audit. He said it would be "very unlikely that we are going to get off the pinks for quite sometime."
Let's hope they found a way, given their last PR it seems they might have...
Renee: As you know when TMM was purchased we purchased a shell company and we then filled that shell up with assets that we had like the Network. Unfortunately for us the shell that we bought was not as clean as it had been represented to us when we bought it. So it highly unlikely that we can ever pass an audit, we can pass a financial audit we cannot pass an Edgar audit on the shareholder base. So it is very unlikely that we are going to get off the pinks for quite sometime. However that doesn’t mean we aren’t looking around to go and see maybe some innovative way to get off the pink sheets and get onto an exchange but it is to early for me to answer that. Besides there is a lot of work to be done and I don’t want to be quoted as saying, “we’re going to be off within a certain period of time.”
It looks like it, althoug it doesn't say. Most are done by him.
4/21/2005 - RE: Oxygen
Investors,
I just wrapped-up a meeting with management regarding Oxygen. Obviously, another delay has occurred due to conflicts with pending agreements. Potential carriers that want to air Q On The Move are allowing the infomercial on Oxygen to take place, but do not want that specific show aired. This means Q will have to run another segment more in line with what the carriers want.
Understand that these spots have been paid for from April 1 through June 30. That said, Q wants these spots aired just as quickly as the investors.
I will update as I receive information.
yes, we need to see the financials and subscriptions #s, etc. with all of their let downs lately, the least they could do is release those. even if they are negative or losing money, releasing them will instill investor confidence :)
Not a scam at all.
"i always found jc to be a good poster!!!"
you mean he posted here?
mine too :)
(am i late with this post?)
DK, I now present you with...
agreed. DK can see both sides clearly without favoritism..
sure, make Irishbull a mod. Fair and balanced. He's be great :)
contact Matt:
http://www.investorshub.com/boards/profile.asp?user=2744
and if your post is ok, it will be restored. There's a certain mod here who loves to delete meaningful posts but never participates in any Q discussion for some reason. Matt's been notified...
yep. We are #1 in the board rankings thanks to our DD and knowledge of both sides.
nope :) shouldnt..
hey i love that show =)
theyve had 6 years.
what infomercial? :)
a lot that isn't happening. i hope he isn't just PRing false promises to try and pump the stock. we all know what happened to MLON when Mario tried pulling that.
http://www.nasdaq.com//aspxcontent/newsstory.aspx?selected=MLON&symbol=mlon&textpath=2005020...
just wish Frank could stop lying to us and be honest for once. if he can't air it then say so. lobogotti said at 3:30 yesterday he talked to Richard and rich said as soon as he got confirmation, he would put it up. never happened. this is getting ridiculous.
so far they screwed up 2 magazines, this, 123 stations, no superbowl, no liz taylor, etc, etc.