Vanity Fair New Establishment 2008: The Media Moguls & Personalities

Vanity Fair describes its annual New Establishment list as "a global, movable band of thinkers, owners, creators, and buyers who are the tastemakers, trendsetters, opinion formers and agenda creators in the worlds of politics, entertainment, media, business, technology, and fashion" and lists as criteria for entry "wealth and influence, as well as such intangibles as vision, philanthropy, and the x factor."

Naturally, there are a number of media personalities — both moguls and performers, or, as newly minted Life Member of the New Establishment Richard Parsons might say, "suits and talent".

New Faces:

• Google CEO Eric Schmidt joined the company's co-founders this year in the #3 spot
  
• Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg joined the fray, at #25
  
• New York Times Exec Editor Bill Keller joined the list at #60
  
• Vogue editrix Anna Wintour joined the list at #64
  
• Jeff Zucker returned to the list at #68
  
• Matt Drudge joined the list at #74
  
• Tom Brokaw returned to the list at #95
  
• Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg joined the list at #100
  

Rising

• Viacom's Sumner Redstone took a huge leap, from #70 to #32 — perhaps an acknowledgment that he'll be around for a while
  
• Viacom's Philippe Dauman shot up to #41 from #68
  
• Vivi Nevo jumped from #59 to #43
  
• Jon Stewart went from #89 to #44
  
• Stephen Colbert went from #87 to #45
  

Falling

• Rupert Murdoch dropped from the top spot last year to #2, making way for Vladimir Putin
  
• Fox's Peter Chernin fell from #24 to #40
  
• Oprah plummeted from #14 to #43 — a reflection of falling ratings and lower circulation numbers at O Magazine?
  
• Carlos Slim Helu dropped from #11 to #46
  
• CBS' Les Moonves dropped from #25 to #54
  
• Liberty Media's John Malone fell from #69 to #86
  
• Harvey and Bob Weinstein plummeted from #41 to #87
  

Full list of media players below (last year's rank in parentheses):

2. Rupert Murdoch, News Corp. (1)
3. Sergey Brin (3), Larry Page (3), and Eric Schmidt (new entry), Google
12. Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York, Bloomberg L.P. (9)
18. Barry Diller & Diane von Furstenberg (15), IAC; Diane von Furstenberg (15)
25. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook (new entry)
27. Jeff Bewkes, Time Warner (22)
29. Herb Allen, Allen & Co. (21)
32. Sumner Redstone, Viacom, CBS (70)
35. Robert Iger, Disney (36)
39. Howard Stringer, Sony (17)
40. Peter Chernin, News Corp. (24)
41. Philippe Dauman, Viacom (68)
42. Vivi Nevo, NV Investments (59)
43. Oprah Winfrey, Harpo Productions (14)
44. Jon Stewart, The Daily Show (89)
45. Stephen Colbert, The Colbert Report (87)

46. Carlos Slim Helú, Teléfonos de México, América Móvil (11)
50. Mike Nichols & Diane Sawyer, director; ABC News anchor (42)
54. Leslie Moonves, CBS (25)
60. Bill Keller, The New York Times (new entry)
64. Anna Wintour, Vogue (new entry)
65. Brian Roberts, Comcast (57)
68. Jeff Zucker, NBC Universal (returning)
69. Jeff Skoll, Participant Media (61)
74. Matt Drudge, the Drudge Report (new entry)
81. Charlie Rose, Charlie Rose (80)
82. Frank Rich, The New York Times, HBO (82)
84. Jann Wenner, Wenner Media (74)
86. John Malone, Liberty Media (69)
87. Harvey & Bob Weinstein, the Weinstein Company (41)
90. Arianna Huffington, the Huffington Post (98)
95. Tom Brokaw, NBC News (returning)
100. Walter Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal (new entry)

Comments

[TheEmptinessOfTruthiness]

A list of 90+ people whose opinions I do could not respect less, doing their darnedest to make Americans among the dumbest and ill-informed mass in the world.

History will remember you, and what you have accomplished.

[rock2casbah]

A listicle !!!!!. Please tell me ohh mystic Vanity Fair. Now I must know who is really important in this world. Your wish is my command.

[Realist]

Amen! Plus they are doing their best to limit the Internet distribution of media because they know the democratization of media will show the emperors for what they are - naked distributors of media trash and little fascists who prop up the corrupt political system we are all bearing.

[kroses98]

So this is "The List?" REALLY?!!!! But first one would have to RESPECT the writer of THIS LIST, to believe it, and many of US do not, and therefore this list is completely INVALID!!!!!!!!!

[FearlessFreep]

How long have most of these people been on the New Establishment list? Long enough to join the plain Establishment, I'm sure.

[nellie]

You mean, NEW MEDIA is power.

[wpiv926]

It is fun to watch the right wing noise machine huffing and puffing because it knows it's BEHIND!!!! They will soon pass out. Almost everyone I talk to isn't at all impressed with this lady. In fact, they are mad at John McCain for putting her up as a sacrificial lamb. Now McCain wants to whine about the media. They knew full well that when all these scandels started coming up that the media would be all over it. Me thinks they doth protest too much.

[larry278]

Vanity of vanieties, all is vanity, not VANITY FAIR. These lists of who is who in somebody's pecking order is as interesting as spending a day looking at a barn yard.

[darkday]

I'm so sick of all these stupid pointless brainless unscientific meaningless list. I don't mind lists if they measure something real (i.e. the 100 richest, the 100 tallest) but what the hell is this list supposed to measure? There's no objectivity or scholarly analysis, just a bunch of blow hard editors trying to decide who has the X factor. Anyone could have created a list like this. Pure crap.

[ohiomark]

It's amazing how high of an opinion the media has of itself, when the rest of us think they are just left wing hacks.

The media is completely out of touch with the country outside of New York, Washington and L.A.

[Awakenedcitizen]

"Left " wing hacks?

Murdock is still at the top of the heap.

[ohiomark]

Everyone knows that Murdoch is a Lib. He gave money to Hillary's campaign.

He owns a conservative leaning network and newspapers because he wants to make money.

[LiberalDemIda]

Hmm...Methinks ohiomark has an amazingly high opinion of HIMself since he didn't think it was necessary to read the list before commenting.

Here's a clue to the clueless, ohiomark...Newscorp is numero uno.

God! I hope you don't vote come November...

Obama/Biden '08/'12!!

[darkday]

Seeing as Vanity Fair has ZERO influence, who are they to judge?

[Melissa]

What a silly, silly, list.

[MrsHaskell]

Where's Keith Olbermann?

[ohiomark]

The only influence Olbermann has is to the far left kooks on HuffPo and the DailyKooks.

[LiberalDemIda]

Don't right-and reich-wing hacks wail all day that there's a "liberal media bias"? Surely then, if this is true, Olbermann should've been at or near the top, right ohiomark?

I guess all that wailing still don't make it true.

Obama/Biden '08/'12!!

[kroses98]

Those 3 are NUMBER 1, 2, and 3 on my list, and therefore this list is completely INVALID!!! CASE CLOSED!!! This is a Right-Wing list!!!!!!

[luvangelHussein330]

thats what happenes when you monopolize the media to one fixed message depending on whoes pulling what strings. People get bored and move on to a soruce that isn't going to feed them what they think they should be hearing and not reality

[Housewife]

I just pulled this off TPM site. Check it out if you want to hear what the punditocracy really thinks about Sarah Palin. Chuck Todd, Peggy Noonan and Mike Murphy pull a Jesse Jackson.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrG8w4bb3kg

[rdiaz921]

nice...thank you!

[rafael44]

so it has come down to this. For a while I have been thinking that the big problem and will be in years to come is the media.It is worrisome

[imageNvideo]

-Who is responsible for these? What is their fault?

http____ imagenvideo (dot) blogspot (dot) com/search/label/War

--Please don't see this if your heart is weak.

[imageNvideo]

-Who is responsible for these? What is their fault?

http imagenvideo (dot) blogspot (dot) com/search/label/War

--Please don't see this if your heart is weak.

[LiberalDemIda]

Wow. Very, very graphic. You weren't kidding! The "weak of heart" should definitely NOT go there.

It does, however, bring home just how ugly and horrific war really is. I'm sure had the American people had their noses pressed on the uncensored ugliness of war, they'd be a helluva lot less "gungho" to supporting it.

Obama/Biden '08/'12!!

[barackobama4prez]

I love Stephen Colbeaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrr!