The day after news broke of Cablevision's
purge at AMC Networks, the identities of some of the 13 executives fired along
with president Kate McEnroe began to leak out.
McEnroe was part of a group fired after a
five-month-long internal review by Cablevision Systems Corp., which said
Wednesday it found improper expense accruals at Rainbow Media Group, of which
AMC is a part.
The review found that $6.2 million of
expenses for 2003 were accelerated and improperly accrued in 2002, rather than
2003.
People in the industry were stunned by
the allegations and that McEnroe, who has been at Cablevision for more than 20
years, was let go.
"Katie McEnroe getting fired at AMC is
like a presidential assassination," one industry veteran said.
According to several sources, the AMC
Networks employees let go apart from McEnroe included: Noreen O'Loughlin, AMC's
executive vice president and general manager; Martin von Ruden, executive vice
president and general manager of WE: Women's Entertainment; Isabel Miller, AMC's
senior vice president of marketing; Rorie Papscoe, AMC Networks vice president
of finance and operations; Ben Lines, AMC Networks assistant director of
marketing; Lee Heffernan, WE's senior vice president of marketing; Bonnie Boyle,
AMC Networks's director of affiliate marketing; and Melani Griffith, senior vice
president of affiliate sales and marketing, AMC and WE.
McEnroe, O'Loughlin, von Ruden, Miller,
Papscoe, Lines, Heffernan, Boyle and Griffith could not be reached for
comment.
Cablevision Thursday continued to decline
to comment on whom was let go, apart from McEnroe.
Reportedly, none of the 14 let go had
contracts and none were paid severance.
Several of them apparently were informed
by phone that they had been terminated Wednesday.
The review to date has found that all but
$1.7 million of the $6.2 million was identified and reversed prior to the
release of the company's 2002 results.
Cablevision said Wednesday that its Audit
Committee retained William McLucas of Wilmer Cutler & Pickering to conduct
an investigation and to retain forensic accountants to aid a continuing
review.
