Jim's comments (cont'd): 

Maybe it was the General Motors sized $12.5 billion loss in CBS's last quarter... that could do it... Could it be the endless speculation that the real power behind CBS's throne, Sumner Redstone, could be forced to sell his stock to meet pressing financial needs?...

Was he blasting the radio division for tanking it beyond even what the Bears thought possible?...

Perhaps he was dissing the affiliates who are getting crushed by local ad cancellations... or maybe he was blaming himself, taking heat for the decision to cling to the old expensive model of television development?...

Could be that Les Moonves is furious at himself for taking down a huge pile of debt that is trading at a substantial discount to investment grade paper?... Or the fact that he bought back a monster amount of stock in the $30s and high $20s?... with the stock now at a lowly worm, seven dollars?...

Could it be that he's mad at the Interact Division... you know, the one where the centerpiece is CNET, where he paid $1.8 billion for it not that long ago and it is now "right sizing?"...

Wow... that's like a professional, one-hour Martinizing... laundry list of things gone wrong to remonstrate ... What a miserable list of reasons for Moonves to be enraged... He has every reason to be mean, mad and angry at himself... and he should definitely be taking a Xanax... about the stocks decline...

But wasn't any of those culprits that he was lashing and bashing about?...

Nope, nope, nope... No, he was trash talking Jeff Zucker... my boss at NBC...

Now, I will say this... if CBS's chart were upside down, then you know what... I would trash buddy, pal Jeff Zucker... I'd make sport of him...

I for one thought it would be a huge blunder to let (Jay Leno) go to another network... but I didn't think this move was a "desperate ploy by a network, unable to develop its own hit shows"... as the Post described Moonves's attack... "Network television is about hit shows every night of the week."

So here's the question...

If network television is really about hit shows every night of the week, then why is CBS's stock one of the worst in the chart book?...

Memo to Les, whom I love dearly...


The headline should be, "CBS chief bashes himself"... not Zucker. Jeff's not the reason why your stock has gone from $35 to $7...

Here's a twist on Cramer-fave, Shakespeare, just for you Les... Et Tu, Bruti?... the fault is in both your stars and yourself, if not your entire business model...