Financial Fallout of Rathergate
We now know what the Mary Mapes & Dan Rather escapades cost CBS News’ parent company, Viacom. The answer is a
“…non-cash impairment charge of $18.0 billion…”
See page 16 here http://www.viacom.com/pdf/qr4q04.pdf
See page 16 here http://www.viacom.com/pdf/qr4q04.pdf
Update 2/25/05 4:36 PM - It seems the official explanation is they are writing down goodwill for the Blockbuster & the CBS Radio (bye-bye Howard Stern) parts of CBS. So that means they haven't gotten to Rathergate yet! Sorry for the error! Amazing how they can blow off $18 billion just like that, but I guess the accumulated reputation of the decades was worth something it is not now! Can you say Former Tiffany Network?
posted by MachiasPrivateer at 5:04 AM
1 Comments:
The cost of Rathergate will not be known for years. The obvious ones : paying off Dick to write his coverup, paying off the go-fers they "fired" will be easily calculated this year. The bigger and much more important one is the lost market and lost revenue because of Rathergate. This will not ever be precisely known; but it will be estimable by 08.
Rod Stanton
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