For Immediate Release

FRANK RICH, WHO WRITES A WEEKLY COLUMN FOR
THE NEW YORK TIMES, SIGNS ON AS CREATIVE CONSULTANT TO HBO

NEW YORK, May 21, 2008 - Frank Rich has signed on as a creative consultant to HBO, it was announced today by Richard Plepler, co-president, and Michael Lombardo, president, programming group and west coast operations, HBO.

In this capacity, Rich will both initiate and help develop projects at the pay-TV network.

“Frank is one of the smartest and most astute observers of popular culture, and we are thrilled that we can call upon his judgment and superb instincts,” said Plepler and Lombardo.

Added Rich, “To my mind, HBO has always been the gold standard for some of the best work in television. I’m excited to be a part of this collaboration.”

Rich will recuse himself from writing about HBO and Time Warner in his weekly OpEd column, which is largely about politics and public affairs.

Just when you think the media and entertainment world can’t get any weirder, you get a press release like that in your inbox.

Traditionally, journalism stands opposed to the powers that be. Journalists get special privileges, and get them for a reason. In return, we don’t ask much of them. We ask them to be honest; to try to get the news out; to be, when faced with a choice, on the side of the reader.

Implicit in that agreement, heretofore, were some unspoken requests as well.

Like not having their hands out to one of the most powerful corporations on the globe.

Now, we are so far beyond that. Rich isn’t leaving the Times for HBO; he didn’t use his position on the Op-Ed page to wheedle a jump into the big bucks of the entertainment world. He’s going to continue to have one of the most powerful voices in media … and work for Time Warner at the same time.

The claim that he won’t write about Time Warner while writing about “politics and public affairs” is slightly preposterous. What about Time Warner’s competitors—the News Corp, Disney, Universal and GE, maybe Microsoft, or Apple? What about FCC decisions affecting the media industry? What about the subject of media consolidation generally?

TW isn’t a direct competitor of Fox, but the companies are definitely elbowing for advantage. The Times itself says that Fox News, at least, will be allowed to be a target for Rich:

In his column, Mr. Rich has rarely focused on any Time Warner property, and when he has, the results have not been flattering — for example, in 2006, he wrote scathingly of Time’s declaration of “You” as the person of the year, calling it an “editorial pratfall.”

But he frequently makes passing mention of various arms of Time Warner, including CNN and Time, and he has been a vocal critic of CNN’s primary competitor, Fox News Channel. Mr. Rich and [Times ed-page editor Thomas] Rosenthal said that for a political column, such material remains fair game.

I can’t envision where this will end—is every Times op-ed contributor going to have a sideline corporate gig? Maureen Dowd part of Oprah’s brain trust, David Brooks consulting with Blackwater, Thomas Friedman moonlighting with GM? Paul Krugman would be a good fit at the Gates Foundation. (”Krugman will recuse himself from writing about Bill Gates and Warren Buffet in his biweekly OpEd column, which is largely about economic issues.”)

Is this going to end well? You’d hope the Times’ public editor is going to go nuts, and I think people will justifiably wonder about an institution whose strongest independent voices are cutting deals with Big Content on the side.

Nikki Finke, oddly complaisant, has more here. The official Times story on the matter is here.