Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Arbitron CEO Ousted for Lying

The president and chief executive officer of Columbia based Arbitron, Inc. has resigned after lying to Congress. According to this story by Darrell A. Hughes and Joann S. Lublin in the Wall Street Journal, Michael Skarzynski stepped down after admitting to making a “false statement made in his testimony before a U.S. congressional committee last month…”

Don’t feel too bad for Mr. Skarzynski though. He still walks away with a pretty sweet severance package.

“In a regulatory filing Tuesday, Arbitron disclosed an exit package for Mr. Skarzynski that includes $750,000 cash and forgiveness of about $125,000 in relocation costs that he otherwise would have had to repay.”

Not bad after only being in the job for a year.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

How dare he make a false statement before the honest and hardworking people in Congress!

PZGURU said...

I think all of CONGRESS should step down. And ditto for that schlup that occupies the White House. He blatantly lied during his campaign (Health Care will be televised and transparent), he continues to lie to Congress and the American People, and he is a total disgrace to the office.

Anonymous said...

Christ PZGURU, I can't believe that I agree with you.
I'm frankly surprised that anyone in Congress would recognize a lie if they heard one. As far as our President is concerned, the old adage is "you are known by the people you associate with" Take a close look at his prior Chicago associations and the czars who are misdirecting our government.
HH

Ed said...

You guys gotta be kidding. Our president (and the office deserves your unqualified respect) is cleaning up the mess of a ne'er do well prep school boy who failed in every venture his father (a true American statesman, war hero and entrepreneur) gave him.

He topped that off by stepping onto the world stage and sacrificing our global leadership (moral and economic) while single handedly allowing a world financial meltdown because his administration dismantled all banking oversight.

Let's roll out the red carpet for the bumbling idiots who screwed the pooch for 5 years after "winning the war" in two weeks.

But I digress. Should we really be surprised that a corporate CEO wasn't completely truthful with a Congressional inquiry (remember the oil and tobacco executives)?

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

Anonymous said...

That's some funny stuff, anon 11:53.

Throw the bums out! We can always dream.

I like the prez as a person. But the result of his actions will be no better than George II.

PZGURU said...

ED - where oh where do I begin in addressing your distortions and lies???

You are repeating the same old liberal distortions and re-written account of GWBush's presidency. Bush did not cause the economic collapse. Go back and look at the facts. Congress forced banks and Fmae and Fmac to start approving loans for unqualified people, and that's what got the ball rolling.

John McCain tried several times to propose legislation to tighten up finance laws and banking laws, but Chris Dodd and Barney Franks blocked it (this was in 2006 after the dirty Dems took over the majority in Congress).

Bush did fail to accomplish hardly anything of note on the domestic front, aside from cutting taxes and having a mostly propserous economy for 4-5 years after 9/11. He did not privatize social security. He ran up deficits (of course Congress had a part in that also). So I'm not going to say Bush was a hugely successful president, except for protecting our country for 8 years, which probably IS the most important duty for any president.

I will show Obama as much respect as he and the other vapid dems showed to Bush while he was in the White House. Which is basically ZERO. Obama is a liar, he has QUADRUPLED the deficit (and more), he promised transparency and bipartisanship and we have gotten nothing but lies, increased divisiveness, and his Marxist/Socialist policies that he's trying to cram down America's throats. The TARP money programs (that he and the Dems wrote and forced Bush to sign) have been used to pay off his cronies like Acorn. So, please, at least try to get one of your feet back into reality and stop trying to rewrite history to suit your hatred of Bush. MORON!

Ed said...

PZ, Your recollection of history is extraordinary. It's as if you were drinking the Kool Aid with your pal, Dick Cheney.

Revisionist history is best viewed with rose colored glasses. Ask your rising star, Sarah, if she's got an extra pair. She probably has a few left over from the insightful visions of Russia she had on her front porch.

DOLT!

Anonymous said...

You mindless liberals are all alike. When your reason, knowledge of history and politics, and respect for open debate escapes you, you resort to scorn and ridicule. It belittles you and shows you for what you are, mindless, ignorant, and uninformed hacks.
HH

Ed said...

HaHa(HH), uninformed hacks, eh? Let's talk about the world financial meltdown that resulted from Dubya's dismantling of bank oversight and regulation.

Unlike popular Cheney revisionism, it wasn't the aggressive housing loan programs that buried investors. No... it was the good ol' boys in the bond rating agencies that intentionally, with malice and forethought, LIED when rating the Collateralized Mortgage Obligations (CMOs) that included the highly speculative loans. The rating agencies later explained that they had to lie in order to keep up with their competition and not lose bond rating business.

All of the good ol' banker boys were in on this systemic failure that was allowed to happen by an administration that didn't believe in regulatory oversight.

The demise of your cause is only fitting for the party of tea bags (how stupidly sad is that) whose leadership includes Steele, Palin and Limbaugh.

Anonymous said...

Let's see now. Wasn't it President Clinton who made it possible for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to allow more financially unqualified citizens to realize the American dream of home ownership? The bankers were left with the unpleasant circumstance of lending to unqualified borrowers or removing themselves from the housing marketplace entirely. Weren't Fannie and Freddie among the first to be bailed out? I'm sorry Ed. Clinton, Dodd, and Frank are as responsible for the credit mess we have than anyone else.
HH

Ed said...

HH, you are correct in stating that the Clinton administration and Democrats in Congress led the effort for all Americans to experience the benefit of home ownership. In doing so, the housing industry helped expand a listless economy with some of the greatest growth seen in decades.

While a number of unqualified applicants were approved by a mortgage industry that was drooling to make ANY loan they could, the capitalist system failed when the rating agencies went undetected in fraudulently juicing the CMO bond grades while avoiding government scrutiny and detection.

......Which brings us back to the original topic of this thread - corporate malfeasance and dishonesty.

PZGURU said...

ED - you make me laugh. Like I said in my first comment, and it is a FACT, that McCain did try to introduce legislation that would have tightened up the laws and regulations. WHO BLOCKED MCCAIN????? It was the democRATS. You can try to spin it all you want, but facts is facts.

Your spin about Clinton and democrats ushering in an age of home-ownership for everyone is a JOKE, and then you have the liberal gall to blame capitalism for the mess. It's the democrats who are playing god with the social engineering ecxperiments, like "guaranteeing homeownership" that caused this mess. What the democrats love to do, is come up with some cockamamie social experiment like this, then when it goes bad they try to blame capitalism. Let me clear it up for you ED, capitalism is when market forces dictate economic and financial deals/activities/outcomes. When the govt (in this case, the dems) interefere with the capitalist system so that they can try to force a certain outcome, that's when trouble starts.
Government interference and manipulation are the culprits!!!!

Who wrote the TARP bill??? It was Obama, Reid, and Pelosi!!! Remember, when McCain flew back to DC to try to get involved, they shut him out, and then O, R, and P forced it down Bush's throat.

And, let's look at this issue of overpaid executives. While Obama is screaming about bank bonuses, he's completely ignoring what the CEO of Fannie Mae is raking in - 2.7 million dollars!!!! Where's the media to cover this story!!!

Stop spinning the facts and just accept that the democRATS are the root cause of the economic catastrophe that we are dealing with. And Obama's "solutions" (unlike how Reagan fixed the economy when he was president) are only going to make things much worse - which is what he wants to happen and I would venture you do too since you are an anti-capitalist just like Obama.