Variety thinks that Lack, Sony's top music boss, is so much more than just an idiot savant executive:
"In his new gig, Andy Lack has made it a point to defy conventional wisdom. And, given his present challenges, he'd better keep doing so. Howard Stringer picked Lack, 58, a TV news guy with no music background, in January 2003 to steer a turnaroundturnaround at Sony Music Entertainment.
"If Lack lacks confidence, it doesn't show. The larger-than-life figure cut a wide swath through the television business, first as a producer of longform programming at CBS and then as president of NBC News and ultimately president of the network.
"At NBC, Lack made a midcareer transition from TV producer to corporate operator at the knee of Jack Welch and Bob Wright. 'He just soaked it up,' says Erik Sorenson, the former exec producer of 'CBS Evening News' later tapped by Lack to run MSNBC. 'Here was a guy cut from an artistic cloth who was never really a manager until he took over NBC News.'
But Lack's real, um, brand of artistry is in the press coverage of another story: the Sony/BMG payola scandal that brought down the wrath of New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and incurred a $10 million fine. Lack's name is conspicuously absent:
"Under the Sony BMG settlement, the company agreed to stop making payments to radio stations in exchange for airplay, Spitzer said.
"As part of the settlement, Sony BMG admitted that payola 'has continued to be an unfortunately prevalent aspect of radio promotion. Sony BMG acknowledges that various employees pursued some radio promotion practices on behalf of the company that were wrong and improper.'"
That naughty, naughty, inept, corrupt Sony BMG. A casual reader might wonder who heads such an organization--and would probably keep wondering. Good work, Andy! Andy? Andy? Anybody home?
