Often times, you probably see a piece of information and think, “wow, that’s new and outrageous”. Well, when it comes to corporate behavior and greed, there isn’t much new.

Take democracy at the board of directors level. Actually, that’s a contradiction in terms — there is no democracy within a corporate board of directors. Long time fact.

So, while this article is written with a sense of “guess what?”, nothing here is new:

A list of companies retaining directors who were rejected by shareholders in 2012 — so-called zombie directors — was compiled by the Council of Institutional Investors, which represents pension funds, endowments and other large investors. The list includes not just smaller, family-controlled companies, where disdain for shareholder views may be more ingrained, but also Loral Space and Communications, Mentor Graphics, Boston Beer Company and Vornado Realty Trust.

“It’s appalling,” Nell Minow, a co-founder of GMI Ratings, which rates companies based on risk to shareholders, including corporate governance issues, told me this week. “It’s the No. 1 issue in corporate governance.” She noted that the reason such a thing was possible was that many companies operate under a “plurality” voting system, in which directors run unopposed and just one vote is enough to be elected. And even companies that require a majority vote may decline to accept a director’s resignation.

I’m glad this article got done. But, it’s nothing new.