Was Time Warner CEO Dick Parsons too cool for his own good?

This is “Media Gumbo” a new feature you will see here on Media Wire Daily twice a week. I couldn’t let these guys have all the fun. I am not a media expert, or even trying to be one. I don’t think such a thing even exists. Some people just like to call themselves experts to feel important. Me? I am simply a lover of all things media, digital, print, you name it. With “Media Gumbo” I get to say my piece on the industry I love and hate. –SHOMARI HINES, FOUNDER, MEDIAWIREDAILY.COM Over the years Dick Parsons has been called the cool head in the media industry. The man is like a fire extinguisher due to his ability to put out flames with cool diplomacy and calming tone. But were these very skills silently working against Dick Parsons? We all know the story of how Dick calmed the ruff waters after the nasty AOL Time Warner merger, but after that storm was over, Other than the fact he dropped the AOL from the corporate name, Dick Parsons really didn’t do anything bold to move the stock. In some ways I saw him as a “If it’s not broken all the way then don’t fix it” kind of guy. Like a car that’s been running OK on 4 cylinders after an accident, but it’s an 8 cylinder engine under the hood. Why not get all cylinders pumping again? Under his leadership the only thing Time Warner really did was reduce dept among some other improvements but why didn’t Dick make more drastic moves to deliver for shareholders. One of the reasons could be because he was afraid of failure and wanted to keep things as they were long enough to then turn over any future bold and risky decision making to a successor. Enter the Bewkes Administration…. Why does everyone think Rupert Murdoch is going to ruin the Wall Street Journal? When the Dow Jones, News Corp deal was announced, rumors and speculations went into overdrive. The main focus of these rumors and speculations were about the future of the Wall Street Journal. It is/was believed that he was/is going to inject the tabloid DNA of his other popular tabloidish newspapers like the New York Post and the Sun into the highly regarded WSJ depleting its reputation. But if anyone cared to take a step back and look at the big picture, they would ask, why would he ruin a good thing with such a huge following? The answer, he isn’t. If you ask me, Rupert Murdoch is the best thing that will ever happen to the Wall Street Journal. The paper was badly in need of a cash injection to expand the WSJ brand online and off. He took the paper from the cold dead hands of the Bancroft family and will build on what is a legendary foundation. I am personally looking forward to seeing how Murdoch ties it in with the Fox Business Network, as well as other News Corp media properties. A News Corp acquisition of social networking business website Linked-In would be the icing on top.