• Paid Content, Monday, January 31, 2011 4:30 PM

The popular take on NCBU's departing Jeff Zucker --"Not since Gerald Levin destroyed about $200 billion in shareholder value has a more maligned executive emerged from the media world" -- needs to be rethought, according to Andrew Wallenstein.

NBC broadcast may have imploded under Zucker's watch, but don't discount the "extraordinary growth NBCU experienced in the cable business," including the bcquisitions of Bravo, Oxygen and Weather Channel -- all "textbook turnaround stories," Wallenstein writes. Then there's his adventurous spearheading of NBC's first foray into new media, "taking risks like the company's stake in Hulu."

You may not agree with this view -- but still, there's well-written, provocative food for thought here.

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