Forgive Vanity Fair Editor Graydon Carter for wanting to yell “Stop the presses!” Monday morning.
A day after the announcement that Tom Freston was axed from Viacom, Vanity Fair’s much-hyped “New Establishment” list hit newsstands – and Freston was listed a notch ahead of his still-employed rival, CBS boss Les Moonves.
Freston is ranked 17th on the list, up eight slots from a year ago. Moonves is No. 18, also up eight.
Of course, the list was compiled before Freston’s ouster. But one curious omission was the magazine’s lack of detail about another recent high-profile Viacom controversy. It said Tom Cruise, who ranks 35th, and his partner Paula Wagner simply “parted ways” with Paramount, a Viacom unit, not mentioning Sumner Redstone’s very public bashing of the star.