Very quotable BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield is no stranger to media-technology-focused publications, including FierceCable. He takes strong positions and isn't afraid to challenge the business models of large companies, his latest collection of entirely pessimistic blog posts about ESPN and the Walt Disney Company, included.
Not one to shy from a quotable, high-profile position in the media zeitgeist himself, media pundit Michael Wolff penned what essentially amounts to a 1,334-word takedown of Greenfield in this week's Hollywood Reporter.
"In his courtship of tech companies, availability to media and tech reporters and alignment with hedge funds, no one may have contributed more to the decline of traditional TV stocks this past summer and fall and to the rise of the new tech-centered TV industry — especially his most passionate cause, Netflix — than this analyst from BTIG, a largely undistinguished broker-dealer," Wolff said. "His influence has left traditional media companies not just enraged about what they see as his grandstanding, hyperbole and partisanship, but flummoxed about exactly how Greenfield got to be the first and last word."
Responded Greenfield: "When they attack you, you know you're doing something right."
You can read Wolff's full Hollywood Reporter screed here.