Media giants oppose demands for disclosure of compensation.

IT'S media conglomerates vs. the world. That's how it seems to be breaking down the fight over whether to disclose executive compensation at publicly traded corporations.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's proposed rule would obligate companies to reveal total compensation to the highest-paid employees, even if they are not top executives. That raises the possibility that not only top managers at well-performing media companies would find their names in future SEC filings, but producers and performers would as well.

On the final day for public comment, rive media giants sent a letter to the SEC opposing the rules. The group included The Walt Disney Co., NBC Universal, Viacom, News Corp. Inc. and CBS Corp. Also, Jeffrey Katzenberg, chairman of DreamWorks Animation SKG, submitted his own letter of opposition.

But the SEC Web site featured a form letter of support for the rule, and more than 15,500 people clicked on it. Academics, financial gums and union officials also submitted letters in favor of transparency for investors.

The main arguments against disclosure involve employee privacy and competitive issues. Katzenberg's letter states the rules would invade the privacy of employees' earnings, threaten a company's ability to keep valuable employees and provide limited benefit to investors.

But a letter from Marsha Richter, chief executive of the Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association, supports the SEC proposal as a way to "dramatically improve an investor's ability to decipher how corporate CEOs, directors, and senior executives are compensated and help to mitigate investor concern about the skyrocketing level of CEO pay." Richter's organization controls $34.4 billion in pension-fund investments.

With the period for public comment over, the commission heads back to weigh executive versus investor interests.