And Parsons made no money for anyone. Stock has flatlined during his tenure.
Yeah, but that's better than the alternative: TimeWarner was falling apart and Parsons saved it.
He didn't make anybody any money (although I hear he's bought himself a very nice vineyard of Brunello in Tuscany), but he stopped a lot of people from losing money.
That is actually laughable. What you are saying is tantamount to me quenching a forest fire that is consuming everything on its path like a veritable juggernaut, and then you saying that (even though i stopped the fire) that during my time I did not plant trees! Whatever you may think of Parsons, and however you may evaluate his tenure, he did manage to staunch a major vein-bleed at TW.
and as for tokens ....well, let's put it this way. There is no way that a major corporation would just appoint a token head, knowing the level of impact that such an appointment would have, just to assuage some PC-minded freaks who want 'equality.' That would be dumb, it would actually be outright crazy. Thus he must have been good enough to garner the position. The only way a person would be appointed as a token to head companies like TW (Parsons), Merrill (O'Neal), and American Express (Chenault or however one spells his name) is if he was actually good enough to get it. Oh, the other way to be appointed (to use the token 'method') would be if the person was ONLY a figurehead, and that there were other people who held the real reigns (although the problem with that logic would be that it would mean that the 'token' is then not responsible, sicne he was merely a figurehead).