  Business-section readers may have noticed recently that something interesting has happened within the past week. Cox Communications, a multi-tiered media giant, has announced that they plan to buy all of their outstanding shares of stock, which effectively returns them to their once-held status as a private company. No longer subject to the whims of Wall Street accountants, they will no longer have the need to fudge their earnings for the sake of the shareholders. So what? So plenty. Media companies over the past decade have fallen onto hard times. Since 2001, the advertising market that drives these companies' earnings has been pretty lacklustre. Accounting scandals both in financial areas and in the circulation figures have scarred several large companies, including some widely respected ones. Pressure to continue growth, which is used to encourage higher stock price, has caused many media companies to put unrealistic expectations on their employees, and to cut necessary costs in lieu of this growth.
The result is that the advertising industry has become a miserable place to work, after so long being one of the great jobs in the United States. All because of Wall Street. Not only that: with the continued unreliability of the media-mesuring systems (Nielsen and Arbitron), which relies upon the average citizen to write down all their days' TV viewing or radio listening, stations are forced to rely upon flimsy numbers to set their ad prices in a time where Joe Viewer isn't sure if he watched Seinfeld on the local TV affiliate or on TBS; and Nielsen doesn't credit either channel if the viewer fails to get the call letters wrong, or if he gets the time wrong. Much viewing goes uncredited by Neilsen because of these mistakes, which are not surprising given the average person's intelligence.
What Cox Communications is doing by pulling out of the stock market game is allowing their business to act naturally. There will not be any pressure to fudge numbers; a bad year can be a bad year, and they can recover - instead of panicking and firing executives because of a sagging ad economy, they can remain innovative while keeping their jobs. Expenses - an essential part of the business world - can return to reasonable levels, instead of the piddling that many companies have today.
And the company can turn the excess cash into a profit-sharing plan for its employees, allowing the people who work at the company to make the money, instead of it going to a bunch of accountants at an investment firm. In all, a great move. Some other media giants have announced stock buybacks, although they have not announced their intention to make the buyback complete.
Technically, once a company owns 55% of its stock, they can pretty much dictate what they want to do, since the shareholders won't have enough votes to override them. But a complete buyback is much safer, for then you can eliminate the shares entirely. Perhaps this will mark a return to the concept of a "responsible corporation", something we have not seen in some time. Death to Enron; may Cox Communications succeed! 
