Sam Zell tells Orlando Sentinel photog: F%#k you.

Come on, coming so soon after his takeover, do you really think Zell had his pit bulls surgically cull out the slackers? No, he just took an ax to the operations in the name of saving money. Which soon enough will be his approach to what he decides is excess journalists too.

 

Re your first two sentences, I don't disagree.

The eventual resolution of the proposition behind the third one will tell the tale.

 

If that's what it is, fine. If we have to write a "local spotlight" to keep this truck rolling, I'm for it.

 

Hey, Ben, you can borrow my crystal ball if you want. Although it was on the blink before kickoff Sunday.

 

No, but he did write it . . . it was the title to one of his books, playing off the Johnny Carson imitation.

Sagan even opens the book by trying to quash the myth. First four words of the book are "I never said it" (meaning "billions and billions).

 

If "puppies" was a euphemism for utilitarian stuff, what was "Iraq" a euphemism for?

That's what would concern me about his answer.

 

And Jimmy Cagney never actually said, "You dirty rat!" in a movie.

Ditto for Humphrey Bogart ("Play it again, Sam") and Cary Grant ("Judy, Judy, Judy").

 

Billions and billions.... far too imprecise for Sagan.

 

More from Zell:


http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2008/02/words_of_chairman_sam.php#more

 

I'm sure gay men and straight women would not agree with his comment about it being un-American to not like vagina.

 

Sudoku!

 

I just saw the clip. Zell's "fuck you" was barely audible, and I turned the sound all the way up on my computer. Still, regardless of whether an employee said that to him and turned her back, it was wrong of him to say it.

I know one person who works at The Orlando Sentinel, but I haven't had a chance to ask him what his impressions are of Zell. I wouldn't want to fall into the trap of making a quick judgement on a guy when I haven't met him or worked for him. What I saw, however, didn't instill me with a whole lot of confidence in him.

Regarding the whole "puppies and Iraq" approach, we need to strike a difficult balance between giving readers what they want and what we think they want. What if what they want is 24/7 Britney Spears coverage? If you work at a hyperlocal paper like the one I work at, it makes no sense to include it.

Having said that, one thing editors seem to consider desperation time filler that turns out to be popular is a photo page. Do we do it if we're not crying out for content? Probably not. But I can remember one week in particular when I was moaning because I had to run an all photos page. Before the next week's paper hit the newsstands, I got a phone call from a mother whose kid was in one of the pictures.

I won't run Britney unless she crashes a car into a ditch in my county. I won't run Trainwreck Winehouse unless she hits rehab in my county. But I'll run puppies as well as what I'd consider real news for my county.