The New York Times’ media writer, the iconoclastic David Carr, sawed away mercilessly Monday at two of the nation’s major newspapers chains, Gannett and Tribune Co.
In his weekly column, Carr said that current and former executives at those two companies (and, really, you could lump in several others, including McClatchy, which owns The Star) were just as guilty of corporate greed and self-enrichment as Wall Street bankers.
He cited the case of Craig A. Dubow, who resigned recently as Gannett’s chief executive.
“His short six-year tenure was, by most accounts, a disaster,” Carr wrote. “Gannett’s stock price declined to about $10 a share from a high of $75 the day after he took over; the number of employees at Gannett plummeted to 32,000 from about 52,000, resulting in a remarkable diminution in journalistic boots on the ground at the 82 newspapers the company owns.”
And was Dubow shown the door for that miserable performance? Oh, no, He retired on his own volition and “walked out the door with just under $37.1 million in retirement, health and disability benefits.
“That comes on top of a combined $16 million in salary and bonuses in the last two years,” Carr continued.
Carr said: “Forget about occupying Wall Street; maybe it’s time to start occupying Main Street, a place Gannett has bled dry by offering less and less news while dumping and furloughing journalists in seemingly every quarter.”
The same words could be spoken about McClatchy, which has bled The Star dry, with its overall employment going from about 2,000 several years ago to about 750 now.
It’s even worse at the Tribune Co., which owns The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune and The Sun (of Baltimore), among others. Sam Zell, a blunderbuss with a background in radio-station ownership, bought Tribune in 2007 and quickly ran it into the ground — and bankruptcy court.
More than 4,000 people have lost their jobs at Tribune properties, and the Zell-appointed leaders who remain are eligible for a bonus pool of $26.4 million to $32.4 million under the current plan to exit bankruptcy.
Carr summed up the situation this way…
“No one, least of all me, is suggesting that running a newspaper is a piece of cake. But the people in the industry who are content to slide people out of the back of the truck until it runs out of gas not only don’t deserve tens of millions in bonuses, they don’t deserve jobs.”
…What a disgrace. What a terrible plague “corporate journalism” has afflicted on the newspaper industry. My heart goes out to the thousands of good, honest journalists who didn’t get in the business to get rich but who are getting the shaft from executives doing just that.
***
Now, observations on a couple of strictly local stories…
:: You know how The Star rates the regional college football teams each week?
Well, the Southwest Early College football coach gets a big, fat “F” this week for failing to call police after someone shot holes in the side of the bus after a game last Friday at the former Southeast High School football field at Meyer Boulevard and Swope Parkway.
According to a story in Thursday’s Star, coach Tim Johnson told police he waited until Sunday morning to file a police report because he had thought district administrators were going to report it.
WTF??!!
The bus starts to leave the Southeast grounds; shots are fired; kids on the bus are yelling and ducking under the seats; and the bus manages to get away without anyone on the bus being shot.
Then, the after the bus arrives back at Southwest, everybody piles out and checks out the bullet holes, and, apparently, the coach either bids the boys goodnight and sends them home, or he reports the incident to an administrator and then sends the boys home.
Holy shit! How would you entrust your kid’s safety to a guy like that? Did he fail to pick up the phone and call police? Or did he talk to an administrator and the administrator said, “Yeah, yeah, don’t worry, I’ll take care of it.”
Either way, it looks to me like the coach should be fired, and, if he reported it to an administrator — and the administrator didn’t report it immediately — the administrator should be fired, too.
Unfortunately, we’re talking about the Kansas City School District, where screw-ups are the norm.
:: Mary Sanchez wrote a nice piece yesterday about plans to raze Kemper Arena, which was built in the early 1970s.
She talked about some of the great musical artists who performed at the arena, including Paul McCartney and Wings in 1976.
My God, do I remember that night!
It was May 29, 1976 (I had to look it up) — a warm, beautiful evening. I was covering the Jackson County Courthouse for The Star, and the country assessor sold me his tickets…The county manager fixed me up with the sister of a friend…I was set.
I picked up the young lady, and we had some drinks and, as I recall, smoked a couple of joints. Our seats were down low, close to floor level, about halfway back from the stage, which was softly lighted in shades of blue, red and yellow.
From the first chords, the music was incredible. Just about the time McCartney and his wife Linda and the band got cranked up, though, my date told me she was feeling bad and was going to the restroom.
McCartney poured on, great song after great song — “Maybe I’m Amazed,” “Jet,” “Let Me Roll It,” “Lady Madonna,” “The Long and Winding Road,” “Blue Bird,” “Listen to What the Man Said,” “Hi, Hi, Hi,” and the incomparable “Band on the Run.”
After a few songs, I was torn between the music and thoughts about my date, suffering in the restroom. I walked up to the concourse and found her outside the restroom, looking pale and weak, and I asked her what she wanted to do. Selflessly, she told me to go back and watch the concert, assuring me she would be OK.
Well, I don’t know whether this was the right thing to do, but…I followed orders. I went back and watched the rest of the greatest concert I’ve ever seen. I whooped and hollered and swooned and felt like I’d been transported to a magical world.
I don’t remember much about the aftermath of the concert. I hooked up with my date and took her home…Pretty sure I didn’t get kissed. And, of course, that was the only date I ever had with her.
She was a nice kid; her name was Kathy. I’m sure she was a good catch for some guy.
If for no other reason than that concert, I will never forget Kemper Arena. I sloshed through the muddy grounds of the place many times, going to lousy Kansas City Kings basketball games, circuses and other stupid events, but the event I’ll always remember was Wings Over America!
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
I was only in Kemper once. Nose bleed seats for a Scouts game New Years 1976. Freddy Fender played after the game. I was in town for Christmas with my ex and went to see the Flyers. Could get a ticket back there. Some guy fell face first from 4, 5-rows from the top to the railing waaaay below. Hit each step with his nose.
We played a game in Bonner Springs once when David Jaynes was the QB. NE was average but we put a hurting on them. I sacked Jaynes, my only varsity sac and it was a future NFL QB LOL We got attacked by the crowd, bottles, rocks and before we cleared the parking lot the cops were there. Yeah that should be the former coach of that school.
I was McCartney the first time he was in KC. At Municipal Stadium with those other guys. Got to see him film part of Give My Regards To Broad Street. Wild.
The day I knew I was over the hill was when my oldest boys came home from grade school and asked did I know Paul McCartney was in a band before Wings.
The whole fraud of Kemper makes honest men want to spit in their hands, raise the black flag and begin slitting throats…
Fitz,
YOU smoked pot!!!!
And you inhaled?
Bob
Shhhhhhh! (I’m pretty sure that was the only time, Bob.)
Kansas City is suffering from the Goldilocks syndrome . The first Arena was too too small. The second Arena is too too large. The third Arena will be juuusssttt riiiight.
I am loving all this!
I think Carr was on Fresh Air (NPR) this week.
Fitz, you were a wild man in those days. I remember the parties at the House of Fun on McGee Street with the likes of Harry Hill. The Jackson County political crowd hung out there, including George Lehr, who played a mean table tennis game in what normally would have been the dining room.
One night (morning) someone accidentally set the front porch couch on fire. We dragged it out into the front yard, where it smoldered and sputtered till the old lady across the street called the Fire Department. A pumper or two showed up, bearing firefighters armed with hoses and axes. The hoses weren’t so bad. But Fitz objected to hacking up the couch. A firefighter told Fitz: “We’re in charge of the fire. You’re in charge of the drinking.”
Remley is right. The city keeps building arenas (and hotels) — and we keep paying for them.
McCartney is still golden. The missus and I saw him and his current band in late July in Montreal. Fantastic. Three hours of music. No breaks. Three encores. McCartney on stage the whole time. Never took a break. Never wiped his face or took a sip of water. Crowd (about 17,000, indoors in the hockey arena) was crazy. His keyboard guy is from Wings. Fantastic drummer. Two great guitar guys. McCartney played every string instrument you could imagine (except violin or cello). Acoustic, amp, piano. Wow!
(On Fitz’s recommendation, I bought Mike Waller’s book. Finishing it just now. It’s a solid read with lots of interesting and thoughtful stuff.)
G. Fred Wickman
One more thing about that front-porch fire, Fred…After the firefighters put it out, one of our buddies, George Flamank, a former MU basketball player, said, “Hey, Fitz, aren’t you going to tip the firemen?”
“What,” I said.
“Yeah,” said George. “You always tip the firemen, especially on a chicken-shit deal like this.”
“We’re in charge of the fire, your in charge of the drinking.”
Jesus thats funny. :)
My friends all had tickets to “Yes” right before the roof collapsed. I think it collapsed twice.
I like this quote from Wiki, “Approximately one acre, or 200 ft (61 m) × 215 ft (66 m) of roof collapsed. The air pressure, increased by the rapidly falling roof caused some of the walls to blow out. However, the portals remained undamaged…”
Oh, ok, the portals were fine, so no big deal. JESUS the fuckin walls blew out!! Then, about five years later, IT HAPPENED AGAIN!!
But chuck, no one was in there at the time.
Oh, ok…
Sheesh, you would think a town that had the Hyatt collapse would have taken this more seriously. I don’t remember any one thinking it was a big deal, except for my firends who missed the “Yes” concert (Get offa my ass about the “Yes” concert right now…).
This just kills me, the understatement has just got me laughin my ass off, more from Wiki (Sorry Fitz, its hilarious.)
“On June 4, 1979, at 6:45 p.m., a major storm with 70 mph (110 km/h) winds and heavy rains caused a portion of Kemper Arena’s roof to collapse. Since the arena was not in use at the time, no one was injured. The collapse—three years after the hall had hosted the 1976 Republican National Convention — along with another Kansas City structural failure — the 1981 Hyatt Regency walkway collapse — shocked the city and the architecture world.
The American Institute of Architects had given the building an “Honor” award in 1976 [2] and thousands of its members were at its annual national conference there less than 24 hours before the 1979 collapse. Further, coupled with the January 18, 1978, collapse of the Hartford Civic Center from heavy snow in the early morning hours just after a University of Connecticut basketball game, this collapse prompted architects to seriously reconsider computer models used to determine the safety of arenas.”
YA THINK!!!!!!!!!!!
Ah Fitz! The SWEET memories of youth!
But first I must address CORPORATE GREED. Enough with Golden Parachutes, these vermin, and I say that my deepest apologies to real vermin, need to get GOLDEN SHOWERS. A golden and public opportunity for both employees and shareholders to LITERALLY PISS ON THEM. While capitalism has many flaws. These huge payouts to C-Level execs for FAILURE are at the top of the list.
The Night They Drove Old Kemper Down! A young Anne Peterson was thrust in front of the TV camera LIVE, LATE BREAKING, INVESTIGATIVE from Kemper. She was as clueless and nervous as a newbie could be. Yet, I was ENCHANTED by her. For the first time in my life a young woman that I wanted to have sex with and might possibly consider marrying.
Some time after that I came face to face with her. I was 18 at the time. She was covering the funeral of KCK Commissioner Tom Lally. As I approached her she smiled sweetly at me. For one of the few times in my life I was positively speechless. She moved on. I was frozen in time like a pillar of salt at the intersection of Sodom and Gomorrah To have that moment over again. What might have been? I do think I’ve aged better than her so perhaps it’s all for the best.
Three weeks after the collapse of the roof I was driving with a friend of mine by Kemper. We pulled into the lot to look at a pile of debris that had been assembled. It was full of audio speakers and audio components. He was in the process of starting a sound reinforcement company. This trash was his treasure. A security guard approached and asked what we were doing. My friend inquired about the “junk”. The guard said it was trash. We asked if we could take some of it. He didn’t say yes or no. He did say he didn’t didn’t care but we didn’t hear him say that.. I was left to guard the pile. My friend headed down to Hertz Penske on James Street to rent a truck. Several hours later we salvaged anything and everything he thought was of value. At the time the value of what we salvaged, if bought new would have cost around $40K. After some elbow grease and outside technical repair of some components it was all brought back to life for about $10K.
My friend went on to bigger and better things in the entertainment biz and had the opportunity to work on a Wings tour as part of the production staff. He shared this story with me.
At some point during the tour Linda insisted that all meals served band, traveling and local Teamster and Stagehand crews had to be VEGAN.
Vegan ROADIES and UNION LABOR? Where’s Jimmy Hoffa when you need him?
Despite complaints to Paul and his inner circle he/they backed her decision. What a puff-boy.
Ultimately, many of the crew left for that and other “Linda” reasons. Before they did they conspired with the sound-mixer and recorded many hours of audio of Linda from live concerts. She could not sing on key to save her life and could not keep tempo with the rest of the band who were all well seasoned players. She was as they say “not in the mix”.
The tapes were released to a variety of media, causing some embarassment to Paul and Linda. Threats of lawsuits from Paul at the time got everything under control but not before she was exposed as a manipulative fraud and Paul exposed as one of the most Pussy Whipped rock stars of all time. He does seem to attract a certain type of woman Heather Mills fabulously took him to the cleaners absent a pre-nup and he recently married into THE TRIBE. OUCH!
Great story smartman, I remember hearing Linda’s tapes on the radio.
Funny stuff.
Ditto, Smartman. Innumerable guys around town shared your lust for Anne Peterson. As Ed McMahon once said of an attractive guest on the “Tonight” show, “She’s the kind of girl you can have some fun with and still take home to meet Mom.”
Like the inside stuff on Linda McCartney, too. I’d heard about the off-key singing, but I’ll tell you, she looked mighty fine up there on the stage, behind the keyboard. Whatever she lacked in musical talent, she made up for in sheer presence.