Re: 12/02 - Media Life: Readers pick Martha as top media villain
Readers pick Martha
as top media villain
You admire Mel but dish nasty about lots of folks
By Jeff Bercovici
Martha’s a scoundrel, Maxim’s a trendsetter, and “Joe Millionaire” is straight out of the Book of Revelations.
That’s according to those who voted in Media Life’s Best and Worst of 2002 poll, which began Monday and concluded yesterday.
We asked our readers to weigh in on the media people, properties and happenings that have made headlines or served as gossip column fodder over the last 12 months.
We invited you to dispense both praise and ridicule, and you were generous with both--especially the ridicule.
Some of the questions we posed produced overwhelming consensus.
Asked which magazine has had the greatest influence on other publications in the past year, 50.9 percent of respondents picked Maxim. For all the buzz it has generated under new editor Bonnie Fuller, Us Weekly, the next most popular choice, got only 21.4 percent of the vote.
Other choices—Teen People, InStyle, O: The Oprah Magazine and Vice—trailed far behind.
Martha Stewart was also a hands-down winner—or perhaps loser would be more appropriate: 56.9 percent of respondents chose her as Media Villain of the Year.
Rolling Stone owner Jann Wenner only garnered 14.2 percent of the vote. AOL Time Warner chairman Steve Case, his former colleague Bob Pittman and Rosie O’Donnell were popular write-in votes.
Meanwhile, the most admirable media executive of the year was Viacom COO Mel Karmazin, according to 34.1 percent of respondents.
The investigation into Martha’s suspected insider trading was also the top choice for the year’s juiciest media scandal, polling 35.9 percent of the vote, although the affair between Harvard Business Review editor Suzy Wetlaufer and former GE chairman Jack Welch was not far behind with 26.8 percent.
Another by-a-mile winner was Lifetime magazine, chosen by 49.2 percent of respondents as the magazine launch most likely to succeed.
Voters had a harder time choosing which media property is most in need of a turnaround. TV Guide edged out MSNBC by two votes, receiving 28.6 percent of votes cast. "The Early Show" was not far behind MSNBC--just one vote--at 27.6 percent of respondents, while only 12.7 percent of voters said Playboy.
There was also a tie for best TV show of the new season between NBC’s “Boomtown” and CBS’s “CSI: Miami” (although the latter wins if you assume the two votes cast for “CSI” were intended for its newer spinoff).
And the worst show?
“Good Morning Miami,” which got nearly twice as many votes as the first runner-up, “In-Laws.” Both shows air on NBC.
Another close race arose when we asked readers to pick the Celebrity Deathmatch they’d most like to see. Some 26.7 percent of respondents would like to see Dr. Phil and Dr. Laura stop telling people how to live their lives and go at it. Ted Turner vs. Rupert Murdoch and Rosie O’Donnell vs. Gruner + Jahr USA CEO Dan Brewster were the next most popular choices, with about 22 percent of the vote each.
The feud between O’Donnell and Brewster resulted in the closure of Rosie magazine earlier this fall. According to our readers, it was clearly the most foreseeable magazine shuttering of the year (42.3 percent).
Another 29.9 percent said Talk was the magazine whose shutdown they could see coming a mile off.
Neither, however, was the media world’s worst idea of the last year. That honor goes to Gene Simmons’ Tongue magazine. The KISS bassist’s men’s title polled 42.4 percent, with another vanity publication, Trump magazine, coming in second with 37.1 percent.
Another trend that must be stopped at all costs is reality shows and specials starring washed-up celebrities. A resounding 56.4 percent of voters called for an end to such programs. Presumably they won’t be among those watching “Celebrity Mole: Hawaii” when it premieres in January.
The question that provoked the most colorful responses was: Which media executive has best succeeded at advancing his or her career independent of or in spite of the performances of the enterprises he or she has been charged with managing?
We named this the Failing Upwards award.
Barry Diller, Martha Stewart, Ron Galotti and Bonnie Fuller all received multiple votes, but Disney chairman Michael Eisner was the most popular response.
One voter summed up his reason for picking Eisner thusly: “The only Disney enterprise that had a great year was the Angels Baseball team and now they're planning to sell them.”
Another called Eisner’s tenure at Disney “a testament to how short-term success can result in undeserved longevity characterized by gross micro-management and unsavory politics.”
Don’t feel bad, Mike—you’re not the only one to get dissed.
Clear Channel chief Lowry Mays was described as “more hat than brains,” NBC president Jeff Zucker got called “stupid” and GQ publisher Tom Florio is, in the words of one voter, “over-paid, over-perked, over-coiffed, over-egoed and under brain-powered.” (Ouch!)
Perhaps most astonishing, however, was how many people agreed on which development is likely to have the most impact on the future of media. More than 61 percent of respondents said it will be TiVo and other digital video recorders. The only other choice that received more than 10 percent of the vote was media ownership deregulation (18.1 percent).
Finally, we asked which TV show could be a sign that the apocalypse, or at least the end of civilization as we know it, is not far off. The winner: Fox’s “Joe Millionaire,” with 28.3 percent of votes.
Click here to see the results of our reader poll.
surveymonkey.com
December 20, 2002© 2002 Media Life
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-Jeff Bercovici is a staff writer for Media Life.
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