NYT's David Carr rips Tribune execs

Ben_Hecht · Oct 19, 2010

Joe Williams said:

Longtime Chicago Sun-Times media columnist, gone independent, tees up the Tribune and its wormy top editors, the masters of too little, too late:

http://blogs.vocalo.org/feder/2010/10/editor-calls-damage-to-tribune-reputation-shameful/39987
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Link's gone, it appears.

Baron Scicluna · Oct 19, 2010

Ben_Hecht said:

YankeeFan said:

Tribune Board Said Ready to Oust Chief Executive
By DAVID CARR AND TIM ARANGO

The board of directors of the Tribune Company is expected to ask for the resignation of Randy Michaels, the controversial chief executive of the company, on Tuesday, according to a person directly involved in the matter.

The individual, who spoke on the condition of not being identified, said the board had lost confidence in the ability of Mr. Michaels to lead the troubled company.

Mr. Michaels resignation would follow by days the exit of another top executive at the media company, Lee Abrams, Tribunes chief innovation officer, who resigned on Friday after sending a sexually explicit memo to the entire company.

Mr. Michaels became chief executive of Tribune in December, about two years after joining the company as an executive vice president in charge of the companys broadcasting and interactive businesses. Prior to Tribune, Mr. Michaels had a long and lucrative career in the radio industry, having worked for Jacor Communications and Clear Channel Communications. Jacor was owned and eventually sold by Sam Zell, the Chicago real estate magnate who bought Tribune in 2007.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/19/business/media/19tribune.html?_r=1&src=busln
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There is a God. I knew it from the first.
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Yeah, but I wonder how big his golden parachute's going to be while more workers end up slashed.

21 · Oct 19, 2010

Ben_Hecht said:

Joe Williams said:

Longtime Chicago Sun-Times media columnist, gone independent, tees up the Tribune and its wormy top editors, the masters of too little, too late:

http://blogs.vocalo.org/feder/2010/10/editor-calls-damage-to-tribune-reputation-shameful/39987
Click to expand...

Link's gone, it appears.
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http://blogs.vocalo.org/feder/2010/10/editor-calls-damage-to-tribune-reputation-%E2%80%98shameful%E2%80%99/39987

Ben_Hecht · Oct 19, 2010

21 said:

Ben_Hecht said:

Joe Williams said:

Longtime Chicago Sun-Times media columnist, gone independent, tees up the Tribune and its wormy top editors, the masters of too little, too late:

http://blogs.vocalo.org/feder/2010/10/editor-calls-damage-to-tribune-reputation-shameful/39987
Click to expand...

Link's gone, it appears.
Click to expand...

http://blogs.vocalo.org/feder/2010/10/editor-calls-damage-to-tribune-reputation-%E2%80%98shameful%E2%80%99/39987
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Nice recovery.

And will note that, as is so often the case, the comments are as good as the original piece.

Joe Williams · Oct 19, 2010

Ben_Hecht said:

21 said:

Ben_Hecht said:

Joe Williams said:

Longtime Chicago Sun-Times media columnist, gone independent, tees up the Tribune and its wormy top editors, the masters of too little, too late:

http://blogs.vocalo.org/feder/2010/10/editor-calls-damage-to-tribune-reputation-‘shameful’/39987
Click to expand...

Link's gone, it appears.
Click to expand...

http://blogs.vocalo.org/feder/2010/10/editor-calls-damage-to-tribune-reputation-%E2%80%98shameful%E2%80%99/39987
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Nice recovery.

And will note that, as is so often the case, the comments are as good as the original piece.
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Yes, do read the comments. They're terrific as an inside look at Tribune and other Chicago newspaper woes, and big F-U to top boss Kern, waving his sanctimony flag way too late (to cover his complicity for too long).

WriteThinking · Oct 20, 2010

The latest on Randy Michaels and his exit, with some throw-up-inducing stuff included. It's so juvenile as to be almost unbelievable:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/alert/ct-biz-tribune-ceo-randy-michaels-oct19,0,2229721,full.story

And, a last response from Lee Abrams...

http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2010/10/tribunes_abrams_defends_h.php

Some good, full links included.

Ben_Hecht · Oct 20, 2010

Clear Channel . . . radio . . . yahoos.

What more need be said?

Bob Cook · Oct 20, 2010

WriteThinking said:

The latest on Randy Michaels and his exit, with some throw-up-inducing stuff included. It's so juvenile as to be almost unbelievable:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/alert/ct-biz-tribune-ceo-randy-michaels-oct19,0,2229721,full.story

And, a last response from Lee Abrams...

http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2010/10/tribunes_abrams_defends_h.php

Some good, full links included.
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The inevitable book:

"I Hope You Aren't Offended," by Randy Michaels

YankeeFan · Oct 20, 2010

Along the lines of, "the Tribune" & "Tribune Co" are separate entities, John Kass tries to defend the Trib:

We've had to stomach a lot lately, but today I want to tell you what the Chicago Tribune is not. It is not a frat house.

That's the impression readers got from a recent article in The New York Times that portrayed this place as a "frat-house complete with poker parties, juke boxes and pervasive sex talk."

The article contained allegations of boorish behavior by top Tribune Co. executives, replete with breast and sex fixations, and poker games upstairs in the Colonel's old office.

One exec who sent a vulgar parody of a bad newscast to Tribune employees has resigned. And now there are doubts about the future of CEO Randy Michaels, who has been accused of lewd behavior.

I'm not excusing it. The suits have to deal with it. The whole thing has been embarrassing.

What galled me most about the Times article was the implication that the top execs pull the strings on our political coverage. For the record, no Tribune boss — not Sam Zell, not anyone — has ever told me what to write or not write about politicians.

Yet what most readers have been fixated on is the frat house business. Sorry to disappoint you, but there are no beer bongs or toga parties at the City Desk. Editors don't do keg stands in the Page 1 meetings.

I told you what the Chicago Tribune is not. Now let me tell you what it is. It's reporters, photographers and editors, analysts and designers, and others who help us with the work. Our newspaper is just one part of Tribune Co., and what the corporate bosses do is separate from what we do.

Chicago Tribune reporters work in difficult and sometimes dangerous conditions. They do not blog from mommy's basement, cutting and pasting what others have reported, while putting it under a cute pen name on the Internet.

Instead, the Tribune's reporters are out knocking on doors in violent neighborhoods late at night, looking for witnesses after murders. Or they stand in the morgue and talk to the families of the dead. Tribune reporters are not anonymous. They use their own names, put them at the top of their stories and are accountable for what they write.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ct-met-kass-1020-20101020,0,6975460.column
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I Should Coco · Oct 20, 2010

Thanks for the link, YankeeFan. Kass makes some good points, and he's right about some of the great reporting that's been done by Tribune reporters.

But I couldn't help but laugh at the Tribune.com link immediately next to those words: "Chicago's Nightlife in Pictures" right next to a photo of hot young women dressed to the nines.

swenk · Oct 23, 2010

Anyone who has followed the Tribune saga will appreciate Robert Feder's blog of related headlines over the last year:

http://blogs.vocalo.org/feder/2010/10/a-year-in-the-life-of-tribune-co-%E2%80%94-headline-by-headline/40222

SF_Express · Oct 24, 2010

I thought Neil Steinberg's comments on that blog thread were interesting..talking about Mariotti and such...

If you're interested in the genre -- and people writing about drinking and quitting certainly is one -- Drunkard isn't a bad representative. HE was the guy drinking from the vanilla bottle late at night when he couldn't find anything else.

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