Roger Smith has been an entertainment industry executive in a wide variety of capacities and a writer/commentator on the media industry. He is extremely proud to have successfully maintained his amateur status in both roles. He is the co-founder and New York Editor for Global Media Intelligence, a research service that follows all aspects of media for both industry and Wall Street clients.

In 1999, Smith became Variety’s first outside columnist, creating the “It’s Only Money” column for them, which for two years covered the financial aspects of the entertainment industry and appeared twice a month in both Weekly and Daily Variety, and on variety.com. Since then, he has written regularly on the entertainment industry for Film Comment and in The New York Observer. During the mid-1970's, Smith authored numerous articles on finance, which appeared in Playboy magazine under the pseudonym “John B. Tipton.” Smith also appears regularly on CNBC’s Squawk Box as a commentator on events in the media business.

Roger’s long-time interest in domestic politics had become somewhat dormant until reawakened by the ascension of George W. Bush. Since then, he has tried to maintain his sanity by exchanging views with mostly like-minded souls. (His former friends on the Right have, by and large, used their spam blockers to avoid reading his emails.)

Roger acquired his unshakable belief in his rectitude, along with a B.A., during four years at Harvard, more years ago than he cares to mention.

Blog Entries by Roger Smith

The Incestuous Merkins Produce Ethically Murky Doings at the New York Times

Posted March 30, 2009 | 01:18 AM (EST)


Last Sunday's "Week in Review" section of the New York Times carried an Op-Ed piece on the Bernie Madoff saga by frequent Times contributor Daphne Merkin, carrying the somewhat opaque title "If Looks Could Steal."

The rather bizarre thrust of Ms. Merkin's musings about the Madoff...

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Bonus Cry Baby

4 Comments | Posted March 26, 2009 | 04:05 PM (EST)


Jake DeSantis's "Dear A.I.G., I Quit!", the lead Op-Ed in yesterday's New York Times, seemed, on first reading, to be so risibly self-serving that I was certain that Mr. DeSantis had succeeded only in exposing himself to near universal ridicule.

However, as the day wore on, my in-box...

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Sarah Palin--The Next "Great McGinty"?

Posted October 3, 2008 | 09:21 PM (EST)


Sarah Palin--The Next "Great McGinty"?

By Roger Smith

Like most of America, I awoke this morning to read/hear the usual voices of the commentariat holding forth on last night's debate. No surprises there. But I was struck by an email I received from an...

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Reading the Right on Rove

Posted August 16, 2007 | 07:26 PM (EST)


We liberals are frequently accused by the right of only listening to views we find congenial. (This accusation is usually made by people who watch Bill O'Reilly, listen to Rush AND read the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal...oh, never mind.)

Well, good liberal that I...

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The Fair and Balanced Myth

Posted March 18, 2007 | 09:23 PM (EST)


Today's Meet the Press provided yet another vivid reminder of how the "even-handedness" of the American media--electronic and print--plays into the hands of the Bush administration, indeed into ideologues of nearly every stripe. Tim Russert presented a colloquium on how the US should best proceed in Iraq with four carefully...

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How Long Can David Brooks Play Three-Card Monte?

Posted March 13, 2007 | 02:40 PM (EST)


The never-say-die hypocrisy of the Bush apologists remains nearly as amusing as it is infuriating. When it comes from double-digit IQ apparatchiks like nearly anyone on Fox News, then we can all have a laugh. But when those like David Brooks, with both the imprimatur of the New York Times...

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