Opinion: CBS’ Leslie Moonves holds forth on the campaign
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Civics lessons and flowery campaign speeches notwithstanding, politics more often than not is about self-interest.
That’s certainly the case with Leslie Moonves, CEO for CBS.
According to a recent story in the Hollywood Reporter, Moonves is ‘cheered by the fact that the Democratic race is continuing and that John McCain is raising lots of money to combat the eventual Democratic nominee. ‘That’s music to our ears,’ Moonves said. ‘We want this to be as long and as dirty as humanly possible.’’
Not exactly what the Founding Fathers had in mind, but hey, this is business.
The story focused on the chagrin among TV types in Florida and Michigan that the Democratic dispute over earlier-than-sanctioned primaries caused the party’s candidates to forgo aggressive (i.e., media-intensive) campaigning in those states. The executives, not surprisingly, are rooting for re-dos.
The piece began:
It hasn’t been decided whether Florida and Michigan will get a second chance at a Democratic primary, but there’s one constituency that’s hoping the states will: TV stations.One Michigan station manager, who asked not to be named, said he ‘goes to bed every night praying there will be a do-over.’
The rest of it can be found here.
-- Don Frederick