Morris related a frequent historical gripe often mentioned by music execs, saying the industry made a costly mistake in the 1980s when it agreed to give MTV free music videos. At the time, the industry saw the fledlging video trend as mere publicity to sell albums, rather than as a revenue generator itself.
"The poster child for this was MTV," Morris said. "Twenty-five years ago, they built a multibillion-dollar company on our software.
Many of the biggest selling albums of all time are 80s and early 90s recordings of middling quality that owe their popularity to all those videos that they 'gave away'. I'm guessing one of the reasons MTV no longer plays videos and has become all crappy reality TV, all the time, is that they'd rather produce low cost programming in house than pay large fees to advertise some other conglomerate's music acts.
No wonder all the folks wandering out of the UMG west coast headquarters down the street from me always look so depressed. They work for jerks like Doug Morris.
Ailing Fidel Castro is no longer bed-ridden and is working the telephone giving orders but whether he will make his first public appearance since falling ill and show up at a summit hosted by Cuba is still anyone's guess."Don't think he is lying back in bed ... he has a telephone!" his brother and acting president Raul Castro told Cuban reporters in comments posted on the Web site of the ruling Communist Party newspaper Granma.
So Reuters opens with the nearly exact same wording as Granma, and doesn't question the veracity of the published report of the party run newspaper in a dictatorship. You think they might exhibit a tad more skepticism. Here's the entire report from Granma's English edition that Reuters references above
FIDEL is no longer confined to his bed, and is becoming active again, according to comments on September 12 by General of the Army Raúl Castro, who was visibly enthusiastic about the rapid improvement in his brother’s health as he left a ceremony where the Benito Juárez International Prize was given to the five Cuban anti-terrorists imprisoned in the United States.
“I’m going to go see him right now,” Raúl remarked, as he greeted about 20 Cuban reporters, who bombarded him with questions about the Cuban president’s health. “Moreover, don’t think that he’s lying there in bed — he’s right next to the phone, keeping up on everything that’s going on,” he added cheerfully.
Previously, the first vice president had spent several minutes personally congratulating each of the family members who received the international award on behalf of Gerardo Hernández, Fernando González, Ramón Labañino, René González and Antonio Guerrero. (JGA)
Hard to tell them apart, really.
In a message to Cubans last week, Castro said he was well enough to receive some visiting leaders, but he indicated that might have to happen in private.
Delegates said they expect Castro, who has championed the cause of Third World countries for four decades, to speak to the summit at least in a brief televised address.
Cuba watchers say the summit will offer clues on the gravity of Castro's illness and whether a political succession has actually begun under his brother.
Some governments have used the meeting as an opportunity to get first hand information on where the West's only communist country is heading.
But if The Maximum Leader is so vigorous and healthy, why should anyone be worried about political succession?
I'm confused, it's as if Reuters doesn't really believe the pablum they served in the first paragraph of this same article.
I guess I owe these moonbats a debt of gratitude--it was their howling at Caterpillar that prompted me to take a serious look at the company, and it's been a pretty profitable investment.
Posted by: david foster on September 13, 2006 02:15 PM Permalink
I managed the hub. What started for me as a Girl-Friday job in the U.S. making travel arrangements and applying a few reports to contracts and data sheets with chat help from my boss turned into being the managerial hub in a foreign country, responsible for the schedules of two bosses, the engineers who worked under them, and the legal and accounting facilities we had expand back in the USA. I had been in college when I started, finished with a management degree in the medical field, and found myself in Iraq working between structural and civil engineers, government agencies and the legal and accounting sections back home.
If this is giving you a headache, you're not alone. It is impossible for me to express the strain of the workload taken on by my company and the many contractors and government agents we reported to. Factor in supply difficulties found in any large-scale job, add to that the fact that they were being performed in a war-torn country poor on finished resources, then add ongoing security problems to top it off, and you've got a work load of breath-taking proportions.
The contractors and government agency employees also often confronted major changes in requirements or massive amounts of recorded information they had no familiarity with whatsoever. It wasn’t any easier for them than it was for us.
In a stunning development, a plastic surgeon who requested anonymity, claims to have travelled to an undisclosed location in Waziristan and operated on Osama Bin Laden himself. According to this doctor, Bin Laden has completed a total M2F gender reassignment. The doctor also claims that despite the primitive facilities, he did some of his best work on Bin Laden. Furthermore, the surgeon claims that Bin Laden responded well to hormone treatments, and with her lanky frame and smoldering eyes, could easily work as a model if she chose. Also, it's rumored that Ayman al-Zawahiri will marry Bin Laden as soon as they find the right wedding planner.
