Chicago Media Needs To Report On Tribune Company Management And Sluts Video

Hat Tip to Ferrell Gummitt.

There is no way to express my dismay at the actions that seem to have no end when it comes to the outrageous behavior and decisions from the new Tribune Company management.  News was made this week when it was reported one of its top executives sent a company-wide e-mail with links to off-color satirical videos. Among the videos was one the executive, Lee Abrams, labeled “Sluts” in which a gyrating woman appeared to pour liquor on her bare breasts. 

Why did it take Chicago so long to have the whole sleazy side of Tribune Company exposed?

All of which should lead anyone to ask: What took so long? Why did it take almost three years and the glaring spotlight of The New York Times to force the Tribune finally to confront what’s been going on inside its own house? And other than a handful of bloggers, until last week where were the rest of our media on this story, for that matter?

Granted, the Tribune has done a diligent job of covering the business and legal sides of its company’s epic bankruptcy, reporting on the chicanery that led to Zell’s “deal from hell” and the struggles to emerge with a settlement. But except for a few artfully worded posts on Rosenthal’s blog, the sordid reign of Michaels & Co. has been all but ignored by the World’s Greatest Newspaper and its numerous print and broadcast confederates.

Once Carr’s New York Times blockbuster hit, how did the Tribune respond? By circling the wagons at first and printing a ludicrous broadside from Michaels, who urged employees to “ignore the noise” and who sought to impugn the motives and reputation of the writer. (That’s standard operating procedure for Michaels, who tried to discredit my reporting on him earlier this year by labeling me “an out-of-work blogger” and someone who is “no longer paid to be in media.”)

The timidity of so many journalists at the Tribune, WGN-Channel 9 and WGN-AM (720) to speak out makes me admire Roger Ebert even more for the way in which he took on Conrad Black and David Radler, the two crooks who nearly ran the Sun-Times into the ground a few years ago. Or the way Carol Marin and Ron Magers confronted their NBC bosses at WMAQ-Channel 5 in the late ’90s. Or the way Mike Royko stood up to Rupert Murdoch when he took over the Sun-Times in the early ’80s. Who is their counterpart when Tribune Co. is in crisis? Colonel Tribune?

What’s ultimately at stake is the credibility and authority of the Tribune to exert its influence over all the other institutions it covers. In the aftermath of the New York Times piece last week, Kern posted a memo in which he extolled his newsroom’s “highest professional, ethical and moral standards.” Confronting Abrams on Tuesday was another step in the right direction. But I’m afraid both moves are too little, too late.

It’ll take more than a good housecleaning in Tribune Tower to remove the stench left by Randy and his pals.

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