Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Chris Benoit's Father Adds His Voice to Connecticut Senate Campaign
YOUR VIEW: MICHAEL BENOIT
Wrestling Empire’s Grim Toll On Performers
Hartford Courant, May 19
courant.com/news/opinion/editorials/hc-hc-benoit-wwe-mcmahon-0519.artmay19,0,777313.story
Wrestling Empire’s Grim Toll On Performers
Hartford Courant, May 19
courant.com/news/opinion/editorials/hc-hc-benoit-wwe-mcmahon-0519.artmay19,0,777313.story
Linda McMahon Takes a Stroll Down Schadenfreude Lane
Maybe it’s because she wanted to be a French teacher, and schadenfreude is a German word. Or maybe it’s because she doesn’t have enough experience in politics, or otherwise lacks the basic maturity, to know that it is bad form to derive pleasure from the misfortunes of others. World Wrestling Entertainment, where Linda McMahon made her centimillions, is a zero-sum world of cartoon humiliation, and concepts like restraint, discretion, and modesty are foreign objects there.
Whatever the explanation, the McMahon Senate campaign in Connecticut today managed to pull off an unlikely daily double. She landed a haymaker on presumptive Democratic candidate Richard Blumenthal, and it could prove to be a fatal one. At the same time, she stepped on her own story.
By now all of you are aware that The New York Times, tipped by McMahon, exposed Blumenthal on the front page for having lied or misled about his military record – on occasion artfully allowing audiences to believe that his stateside Marine Corp Reserves service during the Vietnam War was actually service in Vietnam.
You probably also know that the McMahon campaign bragged on its website about being the source of the Times report. When others observed that such bragging was tasteless and unsenatorial, McMahon then pulled the item.
From 3,000 miles away, I have no better guess than anyone else as to how the Blumenthal bombshell will play out. The timing of the story was passing strange: why would McMahon leak it so early in the campaign, before the party nominations were even decided? The explanation, according to my sources, is that the McMahon camp’s hand was forced. The rumors of the Times hit, which was months in the making, led to fear that the campaign of Rob Simmons, McMahon’s main Republican opponent, would plant it elsewhere first and get credit for it.
I’m no expert on the cesspool that is Connecticut politics. When it comes to the ways and means of Senator Schadenfreude, however, I have an advanced degree – which is one more than Linda McMahon claims in the latest airbrushed version of her own c.v.
Doing and saying much more than necessary is the McMahon family modus operandi, one that Linda now submits for the approval of the electorate.
Irv Muchnick
Whatever the explanation, the McMahon Senate campaign in Connecticut today managed to pull off an unlikely daily double. She landed a haymaker on presumptive Democratic candidate Richard Blumenthal, and it could prove to be a fatal one. At the same time, she stepped on her own story.
By now all of you are aware that The New York Times, tipped by McMahon, exposed Blumenthal on the front page for having lied or misled about his military record – on occasion artfully allowing audiences to believe that his stateside Marine Corp Reserves service during the Vietnam War was actually service in Vietnam.
You probably also know that the McMahon campaign bragged on its website about being the source of the Times report. When others observed that such bragging was tasteless and unsenatorial, McMahon then pulled the item.
From 3,000 miles away, I have no better guess than anyone else as to how the Blumenthal bombshell will play out. The timing of the story was passing strange: why would McMahon leak it so early in the campaign, before the party nominations were even decided? The explanation, according to my sources, is that the McMahon camp’s hand was forced. The rumors of the Times hit, which was months in the making, led to fear that the campaign of Rob Simmons, McMahon’s main Republican opponent, would plant it elsewhere first and get credit for it.
I’m no expert on the cesspool that is Connecticut politics. When it comes to the ways and means of Senator Schadenfreude, however, I have an advanced degree – which is one more than Linda McMahon claims in the latest airbrushed version of her own c.v.
Doing and saying much more than necessary is the McMahon family modus operandi, one that Linda now submits for the approval of the electorate.
Irv Muchnick
Quality and Quantity of Linda McMahon's WWE Job-Creation Machine Come Under Scrutiny
In the old Woody Allen joke, an elderly lady complains about the culinary offerings at a Catskills resort: “The food – terrible! And the portions – so small!”
That’s what I was thinking when I read the excellent story in today’s Waterbury Republican-American about the outsourcing of the manufacturing of World Wrestling Entertainment licensed merchandise. See “McMahon campaigns for more American jobs, but her toys are made in China,” http://rep-am.com/news/local/483687.txt. (The full text is available only to subscribers, but the website teaser offers a good taste.)
Like the Manchester Journal Inquirer’s Don Michak in an article last week about WWE’s corporate tax breaks – which helped produced windfall stock dividends for the McMahon family even as they were trimming the staff at corporate headquarters in Stamford – the Republican-American’s Paul Hughes isn’t wasting time trying to deconstruct raunchy TV programming or nail Linda McMahon for the completely in-character name of her husband Vince’s yacht.
Instead, Hughes is raising a classic question suggested by the business background underpinning her candidacy: If WWE is such a job-creation machine, then what are the jobs and what is the quality of those jobs?
A further step would involve examining WWE’s employment onstage as well as offstage. Oh, but excuse me. I forgot that pro wrestlers are not employees. They are independent contractors. I guess that makes it OK that these “assets” drop dead in horrifying numbers caused by profiteering occupational health and safety standards – sometimes before and sometimes after their “intellectual property,” as measured by toys made in Chinese sweatshops, is exhausted.
It’s good to see at least a few Connecticut journalists hitting their stride in the coverage of the McMahon campaign.
Irv Muchnick
That’s what I was thinking when I read the excellent story in today’s Waterbury Republican-American about the outsourcing of the manufacturing of World Wrestling Entertainment licensed merchandise. See “McMahon campaigns for more American jobs, but her toys are made in China,” http://rep-am.com/news/local/483687.txt. (The full text is available only to subscribers, but the website teaser offers a good taste.)
Like the Manchester Journal Inquirer’s Don Michak in an article last week about WWE’s corporate tax breaks – which helped produced windfall stock dividends for the McMahon family even as they were trimming the staff at corporate headquarters in Stamford – the Republican-American’s Paul Hughes isn’t wasting time trying to deconstruct raunchy TV programming or nail Linda McMahon for the completely in-character name of her husband Vince’s yacht.
Instead, Hughes is raising a classic question suggested by the business background underpinning her candidacy: If WWE is such a job-creation machine, then what are the jobs and what is the quality of those jobs?
A further step would involve examining WWE’s employment onstage as well as offstage. Oh, but excuse me. I forgot that pro wrestlers are not employees. They are independent contractors. I guess that makes it OK that these “assets” drop dead in horrifying numbers caused by profiteering occupational health and safety standards – sometimes before and sometimes after their “intellectual property,” as measured by toys made in Chinese sweatshops, is exhausted.
It’s good to see at least a few Connecticut journalists hitting their stride in the coverage of the McMahon campaign.
Irv Muchnick
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Muchnick Book Bonus: ‘In Bed With the WWF – Sex and Scandal in Pro Wrestling’
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Connecticut Newspaper Columnist on What’s Different and What’s the Same About Linda McMahon
Highly recommended reading:
“Nothing’s different about buying an election”
Chris Powell, Manchester Journal Inquirer
http://www.journalinquirer.com/articles/2010/05/15/chris_powell/doc4bed598a55650171354821.txt
“Nothing’s different about buying an election”
Chris Powell, Manchester Journal Inquirer
http://www.journalinquirer.com/articles/2010/05/15/chris_powell/doc4bed598a55650171354821.txt
Thursday, May 13, 2010
WWE and General Counsel ‘Have Parted Ways Amicably’
World Wrestling Entertainment has broken its silence on the sexual harassment case of Jared Barties, the company’s executive vice president and general counsel. Bartie “was not terminated by WWE,” WWE said in a statement to Corporate Counsel. “Jared Bartie and WWE have parted ways amicably. James Langham is acting general counsel for WWE.”
See ”World Wrestling Entertainment Denies Report That They Fired GC Over Sexual Harassment,” Andrew Hard, http://www.law.com/jsp/cc/PubArticleCC.jsp?id=1202458078752&World_Wrestling_Entertainment_Denies_Report_That_They_Fired_GC_Over_Sexual_Harassment.
Jason Powell of ProWrestling.net observed: “The key here is that WWE did not deny the sexual harassment allegation. They simply denied firing Bartie as a direct result of the allegation.”
Another Corporate Counsel writer, Amy Miller, interviewed me earlier today for another story that will be up on the website there soon.
Irv Muchnick
See ”World Wrestling Entertainment Denies Report That They Fired GC Over Sexual Harassment,” Andrew Hard, http://www.law.com/jsp/cc/PubArticleCC.jsp?id=1202458078752&World_Wrestling_Entertainment_Denies_Report_That_They_Fired_GC_Over_Sexual_Harassment.
Jason Powell of ProWrestling.net observed: “The key here is that WWE did not deny the sexual harassment allegation. They simply denied firing Bartie as a direct result of the allegation.”
Another Corporate Counsel writer, Amy Miller, interviewed me earlier today for another story that will be up on the website there soon.
Irv Muchnick
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