Don’t ‘piss off’ the labels
p2pnet.net News:- One of the reasons the mainstream media continue to reproduce stories isued by the movie studios and major record labels as if they’re factual is because:
- Both spend millions, if not billions, of dollars on advertising in print and electronic media outlets around the world.
- Both also own significant numbers of radio, tv and print businssess, or have direct and not-so-direct involvement in them.
This reality has just been underscored by the departures of Keith Girard and Samantha Chang from Billboard magazine, the Bible of the Music Industry, as it’s known.
Girard was editor-in-chief and Chang, a senior editor. And they’re suing Billboard and its Dutch parent, VNU, for $29 million in damages for racial and sexual discrimination and defamation breaches in editorial ethics, say Folio magazine and the New York Daily News.
Chang and Girard are, “accusing Billboard publisher John J. Kilcullen, executive editor Ken Schlager and VNU chief operating officer Howard Lander, among others, of all manner of eyebrow-curling behavior in the workplace,” says the Daily News here.
This story, and the Folio report, read like the script of a lurid Holywood movie, but the part that’s relevant here is that many media people will try to tell you their editorial and advertising sections are completely separate from, and have no influence over, each other.
The reality is, of course, that heavily tainted and patently skewed stories originating at the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) or the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), say, are routinely treated by reporters as if they come from credible sources.
Folio’s Michael Rovner says here that alleged editorial ethics problems began in late March 2004 when Billboard ran a front page story on legal issues involving Warner Music Group chairman, and ceo of US Recorded Music (then Universal Music Group’s chairman and ceo of Island/Def Jam), Lyor Cohen.
“In May, 2004, according a Billboard staffer, Kilcullen instructed Girard not to publish any editorials, editorial cartoons, articles or features that might ‘piss off’ the major record companies and cause them to withhold advertising or cancel subscriptions, and told Girard that if he did not comply with his instructions, he would be fired,” says a former Billboard staffer quoted in the Folio report.
Rovner says court documents accuse Kilcullen of “trying to strong arm Girard into laying off the Warner story after Cohen complained about the piece and threatened to boycott Billboard”.
He also says an internal memo reads in part: ‘I want you to avoid writing provocative headlines or employing photos and cartoons that are not in the best interest of BIG [Billboard Information Group]. I need to review and approve front cover headlines and photos, cartoons and editorials.’
Girard vehemently protested, says Lloyd Grove’s Daily News report and, the suit alleges, he and Chang were fired on May 24.
Yesterday VNU Business Media’s senior vice president for communications, Deborah Patton, refused to comment on the lawsuit. ‘We have no knowledge of any lawsuit filed against us – it’s all hearsay,’ Patton told me.”
June 25th, 2004 at 12:53 am
The only time we talk to the people in advertising is when we have to. ditto them for us. They are on another planet but they hold the reins.
June 25th, 2004 at 2:34 am
Don’t know why I’m posting this here, by the File sharer’s theme song should be Jamiroquai’s ‘Deeper Underground’:
Some people with a pocket full of money
And an eye full of hate
Take a pleasure in destruction
Of the very thing that they tried to create
Somebody tell me why does all
Mankind only tamper and touch?
Have a habit where they-bite off
More they can chew
And now it’s too much
I’m going deeper underground
There’s too much panic in this town
I’m going, I’m going, I’m going
Deeper underground
I’m going, I’m going, I’m going
Deeper underground
June 25th, 2004 at 4:02 am
Generation D
(The We Be Jamin Band )
Generation D
Im a downloading fool
And theres nothing you can do.
Bring your army of lawyers
And see if you can sue
To the RIAA
Go ahead and sue away
Dont be in shock
When you cant get blood from a rock
Were generation D
Downloading away for free
Its a dose of reality
Armed with modern technology
Generation D (x2)
Its a computer revolution
Cant you see
The Internet is our weapon
Against your greed
Why should I buy your
over priced CD.
With only one good song on
Dont tell me that Im wrong
Were generation D
Downloading away for free
Its a dose of reality
Armed with modern technology
Generation D
Your legal beagle
Says its illegal
Just like the guy
That mows your yard
Your record deals
Make an artist squeal
You stick it to them
Stiff and hard
Your loosing money
Hey is that my fault
Now you want to bring my
Downloading to a halt
You couldnt stop cassette tapes
in the 70s
what makes you think
you can stop
generation D
downloading for free
some say illegally
Generation D
Dont mind an artist
Trying to make a buck.
But record companies suing kids
Can go get f**ked
Does it make you feel big
To sue a 12-year-old kid
I hope your mamas proud
of what you did
Were generation D
Downloading away for free
Its a dose of reality
Armed with modern technology
Generation D
(©Sept. 2003 The We Be Jamin Band)
©1997-2003 SoundClick. All rights reserved.
June 26th, 2004 at 11:09 pm
This story rocks. It definitely shines a spotlight on the editorial integrity issue, which is major, given the downturn in magazine publishing.
June 28th, 2004 at 5:52 pm
Yo, I call bullshit on taking a graphic from foliomag.com.
June 28th, 2004 at 7:27 pm
Sorry. I thought that was the logo. Apologies.
July 6th, 2004 at 1:32 am
i worked at VNU for many years on 3 different magazines. this story is just the tip of the iceburg. too many married top executives will want this matter settled out of court and quickly!
July 27th, 2004 at 9:04 pm
F**k the record labels, they’re basically saying that you have to be rich to hear music. it costs a half a buck to make a cd and they turn around and charge 20 bucks for it. First the record labels ruined radio by paying the stations to play songs,so you have to hear the same songs over and over again. then they ruined rock,hip hop,county and just about all the genres exept for jazz and classical by making everything so commercialand now it’s just crap. So how dare they put out crappy sh*t and want people to pay for it, kiss my ass label bit*hes.
August 7th, 2004 at 1:02 am
hell yea we can piss them off becuz they make the prices for the cds too high but then again they should make all downloaders pay
October 25th, 2004 at 1:13 am
as an indie artist who had faced this sh..t stick for years it amazes me that only now its coming up again..and I am sure the record companies and oil/gas companies use the same “smoke and mirror” manual of ehtics whenever the public question their “integrity”…
September 1st, 2005 at 5:09 am
What has happened since to Lander et al? I just heard that Lander is leaving VNU in October 2005. Was he pushed?
November 6th, 2005 at 9:50 pm
Yes he was pushed. He wanted to stay and see his role expanded, but he was told he did not have a future at VNU.