Tribune hacks and slashes and gouges

One of my best friends, going back 35 years, was on the list.
Somebody's balls should be in the mouth of a shark over this.

 

To be fair, Tribune didn't have a major hand in the collapse of the American economy, nor did it receive hundreds of billions in government bailouts along the way.
But the notion of a company in bankruptcy giving bonuses for boosting "incremental annualized cash flow" via hundreds of layoffs and the destruction of a chain of once-great newspapers? Yeah, it makes you want to hurl. Or punch somebody.

 

The Trib assigned one of its writers, Lou Carlozo, to write a blog called "The Recession Diaries."

He was among those let go Wednesday. He posted a piece on his blog about how he was now a casualty of the recession. Trib management took it off the Web site.

http://trueslant.com/loucarlozo/2009/04/23/i-am-the-news-today-o-boy-a-recession-writer-gets-laid-off/

 

I was just about to post this JB. Some juicy comments at the bottom of his post as well.

And WriteThinking, I saw that laobserved memo yesterday and had the same reaction. Actually, read Carlozo's blog and he references the memo.

At this point, I am more than willing to lump Zell and his operation in with the fucks at Enron years ago than those at AIG.

 

Good to know that cowardice knows no bounds. :

 

I know.

I'm not defending it. I mentioned it only to illustrate the casual and counter-intelligent way in which cuts are often made.

"Assistants? What do we need with assistants? They're out."

 

Incredibly, the Tribune is still posting a story dated for Friday's editions of Melissa Isaacson. It's about former Blackhawks coach Denis Savard, who was fired four games into the season, and the last two lines are so eerie that you wonder if Missy put them in there intentionally.

Being fired can't change who you are, he says.

It can only break your heart.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/hockey/blackhawks/chi-24-denis-savard-blackhawks-apr24,0,907382.story

Best wishes to everyone at that paper who was let go yesterday, most of whom whose bylines or photo credits I grew up reading and dreaming of working with one day. It's so incredible that someone like Sam Zell can have such a blatant disregard and disrespect for such a great Chicago institution and then think nothing of taking the throttle and aiming it straight toward the ground. Mike Royko's corpse has to be on permanent spin in his grave these days.

As I think I've said before, I'm glad that this prick's business acumen has been so starkly exposed — managing an actual business with actual people and actual lives is a lot different than speculating in real state, huh Sam? — but beyond sad that it had to come at the expense of so many talented journalists who made that paper what it was.

Can't take it with you, Sam. You're just a sad, sad person.

 

Well at least she stayed professional and didn't mail it in. That was another well-written piece. Shame it will be her last.

 

I'm still suspicious that, at some level, what we're seeing happening -- especially with evil old bastards like Zell -- is in fact a vicious game of payback for perceived past slights. Maybe he got burned by reporters and media in the past, so he pounced on the idea that buying up his enemy and then dismantling it was better than fighting or running from it.

He sure has found a winning strategy for himself, even if it has been kind of expensive.

It used to be in newspapers that you'd get a shitty department head or even managing editor, and the troops would hang tight, believing that they would eventually outlast the bastard. Now the bastards are at the very top and there is no outlasting them -- they lay your ass off before you get the chance. The old way, careers sometimes got damaged if a bad boss screwed with your goals and dreams. The new way, lives get turned inside-out, families get rocked and there's nowhere left to go, no time left to fix things.

The best-case scenario for a lot of us is just to hang on for another 15 or 20 years. Except that there will be no such hanging on.

 

I'm going straight to hell for this (probably headed there anyway) ...

Sam Zell, I hope one day you are diagnosed with incurable cancer and then on your next doctor visit find out you've become HIV positive. I hope you use every last penny of your tainted fortune seeking cures for your illnesses that slowly, painfully reduce your quality of life until you're begging to end it all.

And once the Grim Reaper takes his slice, when you show up in our "Downstairs Newsroom" you'll be our full-time agate clerk and coffee fetcher.

FUCK. YOU.

 

Well, I think that about wraps things up.