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Mark Willes, the CEO who lost Times Mirror (and the Los Angeles Times) to Tribune, is now the president and chief executive officer of Deseret Media Companies, the parent company of KSL-TV in Salt Lake City and the Deseret News newspaper. He makes it clear that his LDS church-affiiated media outlets will not be airing NBC's new show "The Playboy Club." From the paper's story:
We've only seen pilots for this and other upcoming NBC shows, so comparing the content of these shows might be difficult at this stage. 'The Playboy Club' is different in our view in at least one important way, however: It promotes a brand that we just cannot support," said Mark Willes, president and chief executive officer of Deseret Media Companies (DMC), the parent company of both KSL and the Deseret News. "We would be helping to build a brand that stands for pornography. For us, that's just untenable."We would never accept an ad from The Playboy Club, just as we don't accept ads for alcohol or gambling," he said.
"A move that just screams hypocrisy," says the TV critic for the rival Salt Lake Tribune, noting that the new show has no nudity and doesn't push envelopes at all. "I can say without hesitation that every episode of 'Law & Order: SVU' is more 'adult' than the pilot of 'The Playboy Club.' And KSL has aired almost 300 episodes of that show."
Add Willes: He factors big in a forthcoming book on the Tribune and Times Mirror, "The Deal from Hell," by ex-L.A. Times editor James O'Shea. The book will be released later this month, and I'll have more then. I've reviewed it for one publication and I'm not sure what I'm allowed to say in the meantime.