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--- Begin Message --- -Caveat Lector- The Hollinger Hypocrite
By Bill Mann (TMF Otter)
January 26, 2004, The Motley Fool
(http://www.fool.com/Server/FoolPrint.asp?File=/news/mft/2004/mft04012617.htm)
A few weeks back, we discussed the meltdown of Hollinger (NYSE: HLR), the newspaper and media empire controlled by Conrad Black. During his tenure at Hollinger, Black received a series of generous payments from the company -- some of which the board never authorized.
The deals cost Black his position, but not without complications. Black has a controlling stake of Hollinger, which, through a subsidiary, owns the Chicago Sun Times and the Jerusalem Post, and he's not going out without a fight. Disagreements over Black's actions while chairman have devolved into a suit and a $200 million countersuit to recoup monies paid to Black and other entities he controls.
After reading about Black's attitude toward shareholders this past weekend in The Washington Post, I can only say that I hope the man loses for every penny.
Following Mr. Black's departure, a special committee of directors began to search corporate documents to find evidence of wrongdoing for the lawsuit. They unearthed this statement from Black:
"We have said for some time that [Hollinger International] served no purpose as a listed company other than a relatively cheap use of other people's capital.... We think [shareholders] are a bunch of self-righteous hypocrites and ingrates who give us no credit."
Unbelievable. Certainly there are plenty of other executive offices which hold shareholders in contempt. Before the IPO bubble of the late 1990s, many corporate executives considered the stock market to be a "funding source of last resort," mainly because of the hassles of dealing with droves of shareholders, many of whom know little about the inner workings of the companies they own.
But did Mr. Black really need "credit"? The credit he so desired came in the form of these shareholders entrusting him with their capital in the first place, in spite of the myriad sweetheart deals he cut for himself. Credit?!? Here's $200 million dollars and a lifestyle that few will ever even dream of! Does that help?!? Want me to send a shareholder in to fluff your pillow?
Pah. You just cannot make this stuff up. Shareholders are responsible for their own money, for their own allocation decisions. But it should go without saying that executives who seem to have forgotten just who they are working for are to be watched much more closely. Just because a distributed shareholder base is unable to stop a management team from doing something doesn't give them carte blanche to just do it. Black has obviously forgotten this, if he ever knew it in the first place.
There's a cost for bad management. There's also a cost for management that treats shareholders in the way Black suggests. Finding and avoiding the budding emperors can be crucial to your long-term results.
www.ctrl.org DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at:
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--- Begin Message ----Caveat Lector- Corporations Need Treatment, Documentary Argues By Stephen Leahy http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0120-03.htmTORONTO -- Corporations are not only the most powerful institutions in the world, they are also psychopathic, a new Canadian documentary on globalization elegantly argues. While the corporation has the rights and responsibilities of "a legal person," its owners and shareholders are not liable for its actions. Moreover, the film explains, a corporation's directors are legally required to do what is best for the company, regardless of the harm created. What kind of person would a corporation be? A clinical psychopath, answers the documentary, which is now playing in four Canadian theatres. "Everything we do in the world is touched by corporations in some way," says "The Corporation" writer Joel Bakan. Six years ago, he was researching a book on the subject and teamed up with documentary makers Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott, and then set out to drum up enough money to make the film and to do more than 40 interviews. "Corporations are the most dominant institutions on the planet today. We thought it was worth taking a close look at what that means," Bakan told IPS. In law, today's corporations are treated like a person: they can buy and sell property, have the right to free expression and most other rights that individuals have. This legal creativity came as a result of U.S. businesses using the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution -- designed to protect blacks in the U.S. South after the Civil War -- to proclaim that corporations should be treated as "persons." The filmmakers show four examples of corporations at work -- including garment sweatshops in Honduras and Indonesia -- to demonstrate that this "legal person" is inherently amoral, callous, and deceitful. The corporation, the film points out, ignores any social and legal standards to get its way, and does not suffer from guilt while mimicking the human qualities of empathy, caring, and altruism. A person with those character traits would be categorized as a psychopath, based on diagnostic criteria from the World Health Organization (WHO), points out the film. Unlike "Bowling for Columbine" -- to which it has been compared -- "The Corporation" does not follow a shambling yet crusading interviewer (Michael http://www.thecorporation.tv/ Moore) into corporate head offices to ask tough questions. Instead, the filmmakers use simple, but beautifully lit, head and shoulder shots of its subjects against a black background. The interviewer is never seen or heard; the corporate chiefs, professors and activists speak directly to the viewer. The technique is so compelling that not listening or turning away would seem impolite. The interviews are interspersed with archival footage from many sources, including scenes from sweatshops and news conferences. It also includes some ironic and darkly humorous excerpts from corporate ad campaigns and training films from the 1940s and '50s. But the film is not a rant. It gives ample time to corporate chief executive officers (CEOs) and representatives of right-wing organizations, like Canada's Fraser Institute. Fraser's Michael Walker tells viewers that hungry people in the developing world are better off when a sweatshop pays them 10 cents an hour to make brand name goods that sell for hundreds of dollars. And it is just good business sense that a corporation moves to seek out more hungry people when its workers demand higher wages and better working conditions, Walker argues. Many others are less ruthless. Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, former chairman of Royal Dutch Shell, is honestly concerned about protecting the environment. Under his guidance, Shell adopted many green initiatives and a commitment to developing renewable energy. At the same time, Ken Saro Wiwa and eight other activists were hung in Nigeria for protesting Shell Oil's pollution of the Niger Delta. Social critic and linguist Noam Chomsky -- the subject of Achbar's 1992 award-winning 'Manufacturing Consent' -- carefully points out that people who work for corporations, and even those who run them, are often very nice people. The same could have been said about many slave owners, he observes. The institution -- not the people -- is the problem, Chomsky argues. Eminent economist Milton Friedman sums up the role of the corporation succinctly: it creates jobs and wealth but is inherently incapable of dealing with the social consequences of its actions. "The Corporation" documents a bewildering array of these consequences -- including the deaths of citizens who protest corporate ownership of their water in Cochabamba, Bolivia -- that demonstrate the extent and power of today's corporations. It looks at the often-cozy relationships between corporations and fascist regimes, such as that of IBM and Nazi leader Adolph Hitler. It demonstrates the power of advertising to create desires for luxury items, as well as how corporations can suppress information. The documentary shows agribusiness corporation Monsanto successfully preventing the news media from airing a story about the potential health hazards of a genetically engineered drug given to many U.S. diary cows. "The Corporation" also tells a number of success stories, including activists' successful fight to overturn corporate patents on the neem tree and basmati rice. Bolivia's Oscar Olivera describes how citizens of Cochabamba city re-took control of their water. The lesson, he explains, is the people's capacity for "reflection, rage and rebellion" as an effective counter to corporate globalization That is one of the film's messages, says Bakan. "We want people to understand that they can change things." "Everyone keeps thanking us for making the film," says Mark Achbar, from the Sundance festival of independent films in Utah State. "People are fed up with being talked down to and enjoy being intellectually engaged," he adds, trying to explain the documentary's popularity and several international festival awards. Despite its current limited distribution in Canada, "The Corporation" has been sold as a three-part, one-hour TV series to international markets, and Achbar is hoping it will be translated into Spanish. Of course, there will not be a multi-million marketing campaign. The number of people who will see it will depend on those who have, spreading the word. That is just one way to take back the power that corporations have usurped. � Copyright 2004 IPS - Inter Press Service www.ctrl.org DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
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