A BIT MORE ON EASTERBROOK and media concentration over at GlennReynolds.com, where I note that “even if you think it’s OK to fire people for criticizing their boss, you may not want Michael Eisner to be everybody’s boss.”
Meanwhile Mickey Kaus weighs in on why he thinks ESPN was wrong to fire Easterbrook.
Meanwhile, a reader wonders if the blogosphere is right to be rallying around Easterbrook. I don’t know — I confess that I tend to side with bloggers, even bloggers I disagree with about everything else, against the outside world. But as I said earlier, if The New Republic had fired him I might have been surprised, but it wouldn’t have struck me as unfair. His post may not have been evidence of antisemitism, but it was, as I say over at GlennReynolds.com, “crappy.” But the ESPN thing just seems like overreach.
And, yeah, they had the legal right to fire him, I think. But, you know, Disney has the legal right to issue Heaven’s Gate: The Extended Anime Version, and bundle it with a claymation remake of Gigli. That doesn’t mean that bloggers shouldn’t criticize them, or call their decision stupid, if that’s how we feel.
UPDATE: Canadian reader John MacDonald emails:
If there is too much concentration, independent journalists will have a media”chill” similar to a libel”chill”.They’ll reflect what the boss reflects or they can be “downsized”, nice euphemism for getting canned.In Canada most of the converged media are in a few hands where they don’t want to rock the boat too much because they are beholden to the government for renewal of broadcast licences.Whether on the left or right, it’s not healthy having 50%+ concentration for a vigorous press.No matter how much the media financial spindoctors want to dress it up-if not checked , it will become a pac man game with most media gobbled up until it’s in few hands.Seeing how most of the Canadian media are afraid of their own shadows and give the government an easy walk on important issues, I don’t think a vibrant U.S. media should end up in few hands. Not in the best interests of the public or good government. That’s one reason I’ve been reading U.S. media for years.They dig out stuff, here they just gloss it over , next to the ads which is the most important function, it seems, of the media.
Yes.