From KCRW in Santa Monica, I'm Claude Brodesser Ackner, and this is The Business. So you still want to do the show business, and you think that you got what it takes. I mean, you really got a rap and be all at. If you tear yourself for the breaks, check it out. This week on the business, that was the Hollywood year that was, the ups, the downs, the all-arounds of the business of show in 2008.

We'll talk with Lauren Schuker of the Wall Street Journal and Scott Collins of the Los Angeles Times.

Go nowhere. It's theour, KCRW's general manager.

Last week, listeners to this program heard an announcement by host Claude Bredeser Ackner,

purporting to be a, quote, rant on behalf of the

entire editorial staff of the business. Well, a rant, it certainly was, in all the pejorative

meanings of the term. The management of KCRW takes editorial positions on very rare occasions.

Management alone has that prerogative, and in this instance, management was neither consulted or informed.

Here's the background to this incident.

Two weeks ago, Rich Radin, director of the L.A. Film Festival, resigned his position after his donation of $1,500 to California's Proposition 8 anti-gay marriage campaign, was publicly revealed.

The business compared his resignation to the Hollywood blacklist days when members of the film industry

lost their jobs because of alleged communist sympathies. The actors, directors, writers,

writers, and producers who were targeted in the blacklist never resigned their positions,

and the business never offered those who disagreed with them the opportunity to answer.

KCRW regrets airing this out-of-the-blue opinion and has made it clear to those involved

that it is unacceptable. On behalf of the station and its commitment to fairness and accuracy,

please accept our apologies and regrets.

The year in entertainment 2008 got off to a rocky start with the writers on strike,

and the business, particularly the TV business, has been dealing with the effects ever since.

But there were plenty of other big stories last year. NBC hired

Ben Silverman as their programming chief, and he tried to blow up the way TV makes TV. Box office

was Bafo, even though attendance was down. Digital music downloads finally began to overtake

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