• Home
  • About me: Jim Fitzpatrick
  • Contact

JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC

Feeds:
Posts
Comments
« Radio guys ruin Tribune Company, but newspapers hold sway when it comes to setting the civic agenda
See no error, hear no error, be no error »

Tribune executive takes “nonlinear” newsroom atmosphere down a crooked path

October 14, 2010 by jimmycsays

Another day, another development and time once again for Kansas City Star employees to be thankful that they’re not working at a paper owned by Chicago-based Tribune Company.

On Wednesday, Tribune Company, which publishes The Chicago Tribune and several other major newspapers, indefinitely suspended Chief Innovation Officer Lee Abrams because of a company-wide memo he sent out on Monday, linking to lewd videos.

The Chicago Tribune reported today that the e-mail “spurred a rash of employee complaints.”

The Trib’s story noted that the Abrams incident followed by less than a week a New York Times front-page story that said Tribune Company managers who took over after an ownership sale in December 2007  had fostered a sexist “frat house” in Tribune Tower, which houses Tribune corporate offices as well as The Chicago Tribune. 

I blogged yesterday about The New York Times story, a well-reported and illuminating piece by David Carr about a once-proud company that has lost its way.

Randy Michaels, chief executive of Tribune Company, said in an e-mail announcing the suspension: “Lee recognizes that the video was in extremely bad taste and that it offended employees…This is the kind of serious mistake that can’t be tolerated; we intend to address it promptly and forcefully.”

It was none other than Michaels, however, who at one time was associated with 61 Country radio in Kansas City, who signed off a couple of years ago on an eye-opening rewrite of the employee handbook.

“Working at Tribune means accepting that you might hear a word that you, personally, might not use,” the new handbook said. “You might experience an attitude you don’t share. You might hear a joke that you don’t consider funny. That is because a loose, fun, nonlinear atmosphere is important to the creative process…

“This should be understood, should not be a surprise and not considered harassment.”

In light of this week’s developments, I guess Michaels, Abrams and other top managers got a little more of a “nonlinear” climate than they wanted.

Today’s Chicago Tribune story says Abrams apologized Tuesday “to everyone who was offended” by the Monday e-mail memo, which contained a link to a video newscast parody labeled “Sluts.” The video included female nudity.

Like Michaels and many others who became top Tribune managers in 2008, Abrams has a background in radio. He was chief programming officer for XM Satellite Radio (now Sirius-XM) before moving to Tribune Company.

A Forbes blogger asked yesterday how Abrams “could have been so reckless as to send a company-wide memo touting a lewd video at a time when he and his fellow executives were already under fire for behaving like frat boys?”

The blogger quoted Dan Neil, a Pulitzer Prize-winning former columnist for the Tribune-owned Los Angeles Times, as saying, “Lee Abrams is an idiot.”

Neil, who now writes for the Wall Street Journal, said that part of Abrams’ job was to send out weekly “Think Pieces,”  theoretically aimed at boosting morale among the troops.

“No one could ever figure out what those Monday morning missives meant,” Neil was quoted as saying. “And all I can say is that at least one of them finally had a positive effect.”

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Posted in journalism, Uncategorized | Tagged Lee Abrams, Randy Michaels, The Chicago Tribune, Tribune Company | 6 Comments

6 Responses

  1. on October 14, 2010 at 11:55 am Chicago

    Let’s be clear: It’s not the Tribune newsroom that is under scrutiny. It’s the corporate office, which is also based in Tribune Tower.


  2. on October 14, 2010 at 12:26 pm Jayson

    What an absolutely fascinating evolution of the Train Wreck described with gritty detail in the NYT article and recounted in your previous blog. The last 2 years of executive excess bubble revelations pale in comparison. I’ve always heard of “crazies running the asylum” but even in this increasingly misogynistic, creationist, consumerist society the sheer scale of buffoonery and license to humiliate and denigrate under the cover of “management style” in a 100+ yr old branded company of noble 4th Estate tradition is beyond dumbfounding. This isn’t the emergence of a new breed of cat, this is ground zero of a cultural disease. I’m not even sure I have the stomach to view it from a distance and clearly the disease is spreading. Fortunately our passports are up to date. Ciao. JS


  3. on October 14, 2010 at 12:36 pm jfitzpatr

    Thanks, Chicago. I clarified it to say Tribune Tower, which houses corporate offices and The Chicago Tribune.

    Jim


  4. on October 14, 2010 at 2:14 pm John Altevogt

    There’s a certain irony here that the same essentially liberal mentality that created an open environment for Howard Sterns and Don Imus now becomes prudish when that mentality pays them a house call. I ‘ve often said that the definition of a liberal is one who wants social change for someone else and this appears to be the perfect example.

    As for a comparison with The Star, The Tribune at least had the integrity to suspend this rascal for his excessive creativity. Compare that to The Star’s approach to Mike Fannin’s excesses with subordinates. Where is his suspension?

    Or compare it with some of the vicious and mean spirited communications The Star’s so-called ombudsman has leveled at the readers he allegedly represents. No action taken.

    After spending a decade in the cloistered confines of university sociology departments I get more than a little amusement out of chatting with some of my former mentors who at one time were held up for their radical views, but are now holed up in their offices for fear that they will utter an inappropriate pronoun, or be ridiculed for embracing the views of dead white males.

    How interesting that the same folks who often delight in trying to shock people of faith and conservatives recoil in horror like Victorian prudes upon the hearing of the word pussy, or the sight of a nude female (after all, I thought that was part of being liberated).

    How ironic this is indeed following on the footsteps of the generation who grew up on Lenny Bruce’s How to Talk Dirty and Influence People.


  5. on October 14, 2010 at 6:29 pm Steve

    Fitz — It’s nice to learn about Laura’s Star alumni reunion only AFTER it happened!…*laughing*…I’ve been back in KC since 2006 and haven’t had a lot of contact with people I clerked for at The Star…

    Anyway, been a lurker on here for a while now but nice to see my ex-boss back in the writing game again…Good stuff about the corporate “leadership” at Tribune…As an ex-LA Times employee, it’s been sad to see what’s happened to a great paper since the 1990s…

    Drop me a line if you can and we can catch up with the KCK days again…

    Steve Byrd


  6. on October 14, 2010 at 7:46 pm jfitzpatr

    Good to hear from the man whose very first story in The Kansas City Star hit the front page! Not many reporters can say that. (I was happy to edit the story and almost as thrilled as you when it went “out front.”)

    I didn’t know you were back. Thanks for reading and commenting. I’ll be in touch.

    Jim



Comments are closed.

  • Pages

    • About me: Jim Fitzpatrick
    • Contact
  • Archives

    • August 2022
    • July 2022
    • June 2022
    • May 2022
    • April 2022
    • March 2022
    • February 2022
    • January 2022
    • December 2021
    • November 2021
    • October 2021
    • September 2021
    • August 2021
    • July 2021
    • June 2021
    • May 2021
    • April 2021
    • March 2021
    • February 2021
    • January 2021
    • December 2020
    • November 2020
    • October 2020
    • September 2020
    • August 2020
    • July 2020
    • June 2020
    • May 2020
    • April 2020
    • March 2020
    • February 2020
    • January 2020
    • December 2019
    • November 2019
    • October 2019
    • September 2019
    • August 2019
    • July 2019
    • June 2019
    • May 2019
    • April 2019
    • March 2019
    • February 2019
    • January 2019
    • December 2018
    • November 2018
    • October 2018
    • September 2018
    • August 2018
    • July 2018
    • June 2018
    • May 2018
    • April 2018
    • March 2018
    • February 2018
    • January 2018
    • December 2017
    • November 2017
    • October 2017
    • September 2017
    • August 2017
    • July 2017
    • June 2017
    • May 2017
    • April 2017
    • March 2017
    • February 2017
    • January 2017
    • December 2016
    • November 2016
    • October 2016
    • September 2016
    • August 2016
    • July 2016
    • June 2016
    • May 2016
    • April 2016
    • March 2016
    • February 2016
    • January 2016
    • December 2015
    • November 2015
    • October 2015
    • September 2015
    • August 2015
    • July 2015
    • June 2015
    • May 2015
    • April 2015
    • March 2015
    • February 2015
    • January 2015
    • December 2014
    • November 2014
    • October 2014
    • September 2014
    • August 2014
    • July 2014
    • June 2014
    • May 2014
    • April 2014
    • March 2014
    • February 2014
    • January 2014
    • December 2013
    • November 2013
    • October 2013
    • September 2013
    • August 2013
    • July 2013
    • June 2013
    • May 2013
    • April 2013
    • March 2013
    • February 2013
    • January 2013
    • December 2012
    • November 2012
    • May 2012
    • April 2012
    • March 2012
    • February 2012
    • January 2012
    • December 2011
    • November 2011
    • October 2011
    • September 2011
    • August 2011
    • July 2011
    • June 2011
    • May 2011
    • April 2011
    • March 2011
    • February 2011
    • January 2011
    • December 2010
    • November 2010
    • October 2010
    • September 2010
    • August 2010
    • July 2010
    • June 2010
    • May 2010
    • April 2010
    • March 2010
  • Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

    Join 549 other followers

Blog at WordPress.com.

WPThemes.


  • Follow Following
    • JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC
    • Join 549 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Copy shortlink
    • Report this content
    • View post in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: