Zell's flagship

The eagerness to grasp the wheel at the helm of the Titanic was astonishing.

 

Remember that scene in Goodfellas, where the mob "buys" the restaurant from the owner, takes every last dollar out of it through the cases of Cutty Sark and steak and "when there's nothing left to steal," they start a fire and collect the insurance money?

Yup, well, that's pretty much Zell's M.O., except for the fact that he starts the fire right away to get the most amount of money for HIM (and his investors), no matter what industry he's in. Not sure why anyone thought it'd be any different for newspapers.

Wonder if anyone's told him you can't take it with you ...

 

Old frog-fuckers like Zell are about as boring as they come: They play by one scoreboard in life, one and only one, and keep repeating their damn selves. Take over some property or company, bleed it dry, count your earnings, then discard the carcass. Again and again and again. The lives of employees who suffer, the loss to a community, the good of the many vs. the good of the Zell fortune, none of that matters.

Newspapers need the ornery cusses who make their gazillions in one industry and then spend it in our industry, willing to break even in money while doing some good someplace. Guess New York has that, to a degree, but hardly anywhere else among the majors.

 

At first, I also was happy, excited and looking forward to having Zell take over the company. Like SF Express, I thought maybe he'd have a different perspective, one that might shake things up -- in a good way, just because he himself seemed so different compared to other "suits."

At any rate, I didn't think anybody could be any worse than the previous administration, anyway. So, I figured I might as well be optimistic and positive instead of cynical and negative. And I was, at first.

For any of us who supported/defended the idea of his takeover early on, it was all about hope, not humiliation. That's part of what hurts so much about this, even still.

Zell was somebody who actually had the means, and probably, the business acumen, to do a lot of good, if only he had been willing to part with some of his almighty money for something we hoped he either believed in, or would come to believe in over the course of his new business venture.

Imagine if he had come to genuinely learn about, take an interest in, and appreciate what is great, important, worthwhile, and even, fun, about this business instead of only just what's wrong with it?...

We gave him benefit of the doubt -- we hoped -- that he might do that.

But alas, we were obviously wrong.

 

WT pretty much sums up my feelings, BYH. Denis FitzSimmons, former Tribune CEO, was a cocksucker of the highest order; the kind of man who sent out fucking memos about his prostate cancer while Rome burned to the ground. The douchebags who used to be in charge enjoyed twiddling their thumbs in Tribune Tower and shitting in gold-plated latrines while they let the rest of the empire smell like old fish. At the very least, we hoped that someone interested in action, in change, would be good for the company.

The old, bearded frog-talker with erectile problems rode in on his Harley and asked us to believe that things could get fixed and all we needed was more ideas and more urgency. And he wasn't going to play favorites either. That, at the time, seemed refreshing, since for years Chicago never had to cut a goddamn thing. Maybe we were naive, but anything seemed better than complete innaction and stupidity.

We were fooled. All of us. We were Little Red Riding Hood, and Zell was the wolf. He gained our trust, then swallowed us whole. And there's no hunter coming to cut open his belly with a sword and save us. Of course we're upset. Of course we're devestated that we believed he might be better. He's picking his teeth with our bones at this point. I just didn't feel like it was in the best of taste to say, "See! Where are those who believed in him now! Show your faces!" Especially not for like the third time.

I don't know that I ever wrote that, hey, let's give Sam Zell the benefit of the doubt, but I definitely thought about it in my head. And nobody feels worse than I do now for thinking it.

I'm not mad. I just think the "I told ya so" does no one much good at this point.

 

Amen, brother.

 

Totally understandable.

I wasn't actually looking to make people feel bad, especially folks like DD and SF_Express who have given so much to the board (and to me). I didn't take the time to wonder if some--most?--of the optimistic folks were Tribune employees hoping for the best because they already figured they'd been exposed to the worst.

As an outsider, it was easy to have zero faith and expect the same from everyone else. And when that lack of faith was proven correct, it just compounded the fury I feel for the industry right now, and I ended up lashing out (not on purpose, but still) at the people who are most vulnerable right now. And for that, I am truly, truly sorry. I feel terrible that with everything else you guys are going thru you have to take time to respond to some foaming-at-the-mouth moron.

I'm very sorry again, and I hope you guys come out standing on the other side. Wherever that is.

 

If only those words were written by Sam Zell, Randy Michaels or Lee Abrams right about now. Or ever.

 

Employee ID badges at the Trib used to have the company's core values on the back, at left. The new ones (below right) will have something else:



A.F.D.I. means "Always Friggin' Do It" and is attributed to Lee Abrams.

http://blogs.chicagoreader.com/news-bites/2008/07/10/insecurity-badges-/

 

Can't make this stuff up. Which is good news for all but Tribune papers.

 

Mr. Logic 101, breaks out the powerful brevity yet again.

 

Please, please, please let a Sinatra family lawyer air-drop in on Zell and his asswipes.

Or better yet, have one of Ol' Blue Eyes' "made" Goodfellas roll up in a black sedan.