MediaFile

Can you repeat the question?

By Susan Zeidler
April 25, 2007

Why did Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone let one of his babies, Viacom, sue Google to high heaven for copyright infringement, and the other, CBS Corp., ink a deal with the suit’s defendant within days of each other? News Corp. Chief Operating Officer Peter Chernin had an interesting theory: amnesia.

“Sumner forgot that he controls both companies,” Chernin quipped, drawing laughs from the audience at the “Predicting the Future in a Fractured Media World” panel discussion at the 10th Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California.
“I meant that affectionately,” he added.

Meanwhile, News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch had this to say about U.S. President George W. Bush: “I’m a supporter of President Bush, but I do believe he is a bad, inadequate communicator.”

With friends like these …

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