Hostile Takeovers of the Corporate Kind, a book review

I have been a fan of the more recent writing of Jon Katz, and I was curious to read some of his earlier writing. Sign Off: A Novel of Men and Work was published in 1991. It chronicles the hostile takeover of United States Broadcasting (USB), a fictitious television network, as seen through the eyes of Peter Herbert, the executive producer of a nationally syndicated morning news program. UBS is taken over by David Nab, a self proclaimed "condo king" who has made a fortune in real estate and wishes to have the prestige that goes with owning a television network. Herbert watches in horror as, in a few short months, Nab lays waste to the network news, as well as the careers, and indeed the lives of his longtime associates, always wondering when the ax will fall on him.

This was a really compelling read. As a lowly Midwestern schoolteacher who has never aspired to the kind of lifestyle that Katz describes, I experienced a kind of guilty pleasure in reading about these people. It was a little like reading a Kitty Kelly tell-all.

Beyond the story however, I think that Sign Off made some important points. If the slash-and -burn mentality that Katz describes is accurate -- and I have no reason to believe otherwise; he did a stint as executive producer of the CBS Morning News -- it speaks volumes to the miserable failure of the mainstream media to take on the corporate culture of American politics, which we saw flourish under the Bush Administration, and sadly continues under Obama.

The novel also underscores something that I have thought about a lot in the last couple of years, watching people I love -- mostly middle-aged men -- struggle with unemployment. I believe from the bottom of my heart that a covenant was broken with American workers, people who spent the better part of their adult lives working hard and paying into "the system" only to be discarded as if they were yesterday's garbage. If you haven't been there, let me tell you -- it shatters a person's sense of self like nothing else can and has enormous impact on family relationships as well.

Furthermore, I question whether when businesses say that they are "losing money" is it really a matter of having a smaller profit margin? I think, in many cases, yes, absolutely. When corporations "downsize" or "cut the fat" it is all about increasing the profits for the stockholders. Tell me, where in the Constitution does it say that stockholders have a right to make huge profits?

Reading Sign Off, I would almost say that Katz was prescient. What happened to television news has also happened in print media, and in fact has reached into almost every corner of our society. I suspect though, that he was just observing the beginning of the corporatization of the U.S. (and the world.) Michael Moore was certainly talking about it and Ralph Nader, of course.

It was also utterly fascinating to see the anatomy of a hostile takeover. It is a term I have heard plenty of times, but really only had the most superficial understanding of what it meant. It strikes me that, among the provisions of that most horrible No Child Left Behind legislation are the sanctions for "failing schools" that include "reconstituting" a school's staff. That's nothing more than a hostile takeover -- welcome to corporatized America. (Don't get me started on Obama and education. I can hardly write about it, I am so furious.)

Sign Off is a very well-written, illuminating, and entertaining book. After many years of writing memoir, Katz is once again returning to fiction. I am looking forward to it.

Recommended, but it might take some digging to find it. It's worth the search.