Barry Diller Declares Clown-Pants on Gretchen Morgenson, NYT and Corporate Governance

We sort of suspected that Barry Diller might agree with us that a lot of the sound and fury raised against executive compensation gets things exactly backwards--many of executives of public companies probably aren't paid enough. And the fact that the Corporate Library awards IAC/InterActiveCorp a grade of 'D' on corporate governance was probably a good sign that the fetish for procedural governance isn't high on the list of things that turn Barry on. But it was nonetheless a pleasant surprise to see Barry this morning throwing a couple of jabs at the corporate governance types, the New York Times and Gretchen Morgenson.

The chairman and controlling shareholder of the Internet media conglomerate singled out governance research groups as well as the business page of The New York Times, which he said had a "loony" view of executive pay.
He also said he had no use for the cottage industry of compensation consultants who advise boards of directors...
Diller said he found "the whole issue of executive compensation and particularly the policy of The New York Times business section toward executive compensation ... absolutely loony." He singled out, in particular, business writer Gretchen Morgenson, who often writes about executive pay and corporate governance.

Larry Ribstein call your office. Barry Diller's a fan! (Or should be, since Larry is one of the best critics around of Morgenson.)

Diller derides investor watchdog groups [Reuters]