Posted on 02/07/2005 6:42:21 PM PST by BurbankKarl
ABC entertainment Chairman Lloyd Braun walked into Vincenti restaurant in Brentwood and extended a hand to his boss, Disney President Robert Iger, who did not reciprocate.
Instead, Iger warned his lieutenant on that night in November 2003, "I'm going to let you have it."
But it was Braun who let fly, according to a passage from a draft of James B. Stewart's upcoming book "DisneyWar." Braun accused Iger of "lack of character; incompetence; taking credit for things you had nothing to do with; and running away from decisions you made."
When Braun alleged that his boss hadn't had a hand in one of ABC's few successes at the time, the "reality" show "The Bachelor," Iger was irate. He jumped out of his chair, jostling a waiter who spilled coffee down Iger's shirt front, ruining his tie.
The portrait of Iger that emerges in the 804-page draft of Stewart's book — a copy of which was obtained by The Times — is one of an embattled and sometimes insecure man who hungers for respect and recognition, especially from his boss, Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Michael Eisner.
The book, which won't hit stores until later this month but already is the talk of Hollywood, couldn't come at a worse moment for Iger. He is widely seen as the front-runner to become Disney's next CEO, a candidacy now backed by Eisner.
"The timing isn't good at all," said New York media analyst and longtime Disney watcher Harold Vogel.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Concidering what Eisner and his lackey's have done to Disney they both should get the boot. Eisner managed to shove the stock price into the dumper all the while voting himself huge wage and stock increases.
Eisner's contempt was directed further down the Disney food chain as well, according to Stewart's manuscript. In one passage, he calls his theme park executives "monkeys." "They don't have any brains; they're not that smart," Eisner is quoted as saying. "It's a simple business."
During the early years Eisner did very well financially for Disney. But he did it, basically, by selling Disney's hard-earned reputation as he changed it from a family oriented enterprise to an empire of sleaze.
It was predictable that the big bucks would flow in for the short term. But he wrecked the brand name in the process, so the long term results were bound to be bad. Once you wreck a brand name as thoroughly as Eisner has done, it is rarely recoverable.
It won't matter if they fire Eisner and Iger. Disney probably can't and won't recover.
I hope whoever replaces eisner has some sort of background in a creative field. Walt Disney was a cartoonist first, businessman second. It's a mystery to me how a company like that ended up in the hands of these logrolling business school jerks. They should let Matt Groening or some other creative type run the company and then we'd see true innovation again instead of these losers that fight over who gets credit for scheduling 'the bachelor.'
I guess you haven't heard my rants about Mouseshwitz or Duckhau here, look them up. Your the first person here that has hit it on the head about getting a creative person back in charge.We begged them to put John lasseter in charge of the animation dept. When they didn't he left and started some little company that had a few hits. Pixar.
Note: this topic is from 2/07/2005. Thanks BurbankKarl.
BTW, the link’s outdated, so here’s the more up to date link:
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-feb-07-fi-disney7-story.html
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.