Mark Burnett, Putin and MGM. Hmm...

Remember when Amazon's next exec courted Russia's leader for a reality show? Plus: What about Bobs?

. Burnett introduced Donald Trump at the National Prayer Breakfast a few weeks after his 2017 inauguration in Washington, DC. Burnett had also worked to produce the inauguration. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

by Richard Rushfield

We all make mistakes. Most of us even make terrible mistakes at some point in our lives.

The biggest part of moving forward is admitting you've made a mistake. Business-wise, this is especially important so that employees, employers, investors, clients, what have you, know that you know you made a mistake, and realize the thing you did wasn't something you should have done. And that the problem isn't just that you got caught.

The best thing about being a mogul in Hollywood isn’t never having to say sorry. It's never even being asked if you are sorry.

Sure if you're caught in the middle of some unpleasantness, accusations of abetting a serial predator, for instance, you might have to keep your head down for a week or maybe even two.

But you can count on the minute you've got that most precious of trade commodities — an “announcement” – some casting news, an acquisition, a midseason premiere date, a very special four-episode arc — the trades will come scurrying for your table crumbs, and you don't have to worry that they'll cast any pall over the exclusive that possibly no one else wanted by bringing up the unpleasantness of five minutes ago.

All this is the long way of saying — Mark Burnett tried to make a reality series glorifying Vladimir Putin and hasn't so much as said, "Oooops, my bad!" about it and now we're talking about how big a slice of Amazon he'll get to run??!