I want to preface this post by saying I’m all for uncivil discourse, especially when it’s coming from comedians. But the battle for NBC’s “Tonight Show” between Conan O’Brien and Jay Leno hasn’t seemed that funny.
O’Brien is angry that NBC promised he could host the show at a certain time and then decided to put Leno back in the prime late night time slot. Leno is angry at David Letterman who’s been taking swipes at the big-chinned guy. And all three have been letting it all hang out on their shows, with O’Brien the most snide of them all.
Here’s a sampling: “83 percent of voters want me to stay at 11:35. Here’s the interesting part. When he heard this poll number President Obama asked, ‘how can I get NBC to screw me over.’”
Clearly the gloves were off, and O’Brien got a great parting gift for his snarky remarks — $45 million.
But the payout comes with one caveat — he has to promise to play nice, play nice when it comes to his former employer now, NBC.
“We wanted to give him a graceful exit. Hopefully he will be graceful,” Jeff Gaspin, chairman of NBC Universal Television Entertainment, told the Wall Street Journal.
I’m all for the little guy taking on the big corporation and winning. But it seems to me that NBC and O’Brien are not little guys and neither has acted with grace.
There are better ways to get what you want from an employer and surely most of us working stiffs would end up with a pittance if we made ultimatums or publicly ridiculed our bosses. O’Brien sent a public resignation/ultimatum letter to NBC last week and he was hailed by many.
I wrote about this in my MSNBC.com column and how workers need to think twice about taking out their anger in such a format, and I thought I included good points:
A resignation letter should be just that — a resignation, said Vince Holt, president of Management Recruiters of Mercer Island, Wash. It should be short and sweet, he added, and not a vehicle to tell managers what you think, make ultimatums, or try to get something out of your employer.
“That’s a dangerous game,” he said. “If I were NBC, I would call Conan’s bluff.”
The column sparked some angry emails from, you guessed it, O’Brien devotees:
What the hell kind of advice is this?! Thankfully, people who resign have much better options than the shallow, servile, effluvium you offered.
~ M.J.
These lame and weak columns full of common knowledge that anyone can glean off of the internet are starting to be as bad as spam… You even wrote a letter that was so basic and primary that my 11 yo could of wrote it …
~ J.M.
If I was Conan I would do exactly as he did. He looks good. Some other network will create a show for him, and he will attract an ever growing audience of those who know how management screws around with people. You sound like a loyal management sycophant. Fortunately Conan will live for another day.
~ W.H.
I’m sure Conan will live for another day. I have nothing against the guy. I just wonder how civility throughout our society is suffering because of these episodes.
I know the argument: “the man is keeping us down.” But does that mean we have to stoop to the man’s level?
January 22nd, 2010 at 4:34 pm
I just posted a shorter, less eloquent post on this same thing: http://dichotomom.blogspot.com/2010/01/we-dont-love-conan-we-love-what-he.html
My point is that Conan is allowing us to live vicariously, and we desperately need that now. Normal people can’t afford to be angry, can’t afford to say no. But sometimes we need someone to stand up to the man, and Conan is our “hero” right now.
January 22nd, 2010 at 4:54 pm
First off Dichotomom, your post was indeed quite eloquent. http://dichotomom.blogspot.com/2010/01/we-dont-love-conan-we-love-what-he.html
And I totally understand holding this guy up as a hero. We all want to tell our managers at some point to go to hell. But I thought his tone went over the top. And I’m not sure I totally see Conan as the underdog.
But what the hay, if folks need a hero and it helps build people up and gets them fighting for their rights then I’m all for it. I’m just hoping there’s a bit of civility thrown in.
So much bitching and moaning on TV these days, in the news casts and during comedy shows. We’re all whining and bitching and I think it just got to me today.
Wish we had heros like MLK or Gandhi roaming the airwaves once and awhile.
January 25th, 2010 at 11:40 am
Doesn’t this scenario bring back echoes of Letterman’s network change? That was ages ago and he still pops jokes at the other network’s expense. For the average worker, taking such shots is risky. In Conan’s field, it may well be the norm. I do agree that it will affect society at large, but to what degree only time will tell.
Honestly, I’ve found myself in a similar situation dealing with a private academic institution. They signed me up for the program under a certain set of parameters, but subsequently changed the entire nature of the program. Had that direction been clear when I enrolled, I would have undertaken my studies elsewhere. I tried to follow formal channels for six months–working through my graduate advisor and eventually on up to the college president. The president, however, never replied to my email or voice mail messages. I could never get an appointment with him. After six months of doing that, I started taking my concerns online to public formums used by the college. Surprisingly, that garnered no response (and my messages were not deleted). Then, when I learned that the president was a ravenous fan of Twitter, I signed on and posted a short message to him. Within a day I received a reply to an email message I sent six months earlier, and some of my message board comments were deleted. I received an apology message (that the college was not meeting my expectations), but I chose to reply and copied every board member I could identify and all of the senior executives of the non-profit group that runs its institutions of higher learning.
This was certainly not the way I wanted to proceed, but it beceame very clear that the college was intent on ignoring my concerns and that the president was unwilling to take action until those concerns were made very public. I’ve already poured tens of thousands of dollars into my graduate degree, and am within a term of completion (I continued during this last term under protest, but in compliance with the new program guidelines). The college is free to change its programs, but I believe it unethical for them to change horses midstream. Those who enrolled in the program under an advertised catalog and an advertised set of expectations should be allowed to finish under those parameters.
So, while I understand that Conan’s tactics may not be the best for most scenarios, there may be some situations which call for unique handling.