Many have already hung up on David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, as the man responsible for destroying HBO’s prestige by leaps and bounds. The new streaming platform that he has created to replace HBO Max – Max, just dry – is full of trash TV. His changes at CNN haven’t worked either. The attempt to please the conservative masses has met with remarkably low ratings. And now it has dealt a potentially deadly blow to a cultural institution in the US: the Turner Classic Movies channel, TCM.
At the end of last month Zaslav got rid of the top management of the classic movie channel, including the heads of programming and marketing. Pola Changnon, CEO with more than 20 years of experience in the company, also lost her job. And although Zaslav promised viewers that there would be no perceptible changes to the programming, the barrage of criticism for what the layoffs meant was not long in coming.
The New York Times described it as an affront to true lovers of the seventh art. “Our movie theaters have been invaded by superheroes. Our movie studios have fallen victim to corporate consolidation… And now they’re destroying TCM, our last happy place, where Orson Welles lives on and Key Largo (1948) counts as a blockbuster?” summer box office?
Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese have become champions of TCM’s rescue. Along with Paul Thomas Anderson, they have expressed their outrage in a statement: “Turner Classic Movies has always been more than a channel,” they write, “it is a precious resource open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And although It’s never been a financial giant, it’s always been profitable, right from the start.”
Brian Cox, star of the brilliant Succession (HBO), admits to being “horrified” at the closure of the channel in the UK and Ireland after 24 years of broadcast. “For me, the way in which TCM presents the History of cinema is an incredible resource, it allows me to really understand how far we have come,” he has written on social networks.
The fact that it wasn’t a money maker prompted Zaslav’s cutbacks, but pressure made him rectify and he went to work with Spileberg, Scorsese and Anderson to “ensure the continuation of this cultural touchstone that we all treasure.” although at the head of the channel is Michael Ouweleen, head of Cartoon Network, an executive with no experience in preserving classic films.
“I think these companies that are run by these rich men — they’re mostly rich men — have a responsibility,” says activist and CEO Gina Telaroli, in an interview with The New Republic. “They are the guardians of these works of art and they should have a conscience and care about them.”
TCM has been broadcasting universal cinema gems since 1994, a commercial-free cultural channel that has played a fundamental role in preserving the history of cinema, including the golden years of Hollywood. For years his image was directly associated with that of Robert Osborne, historian and presenter for more than 20 years. His introductions before each movie became a classic. He was also in charge of the first TCM film festival in 2010, an annual event that has been held with great prestige. Spielberg was there in April presenting Río Bravo, by Howard Hughes, at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
