Skeletons Rattling in Tribune Tower Closets

News emerged today that former Chicago Tribune managing editor James O'Shea was involved in a personal relationship with a publicist similar to the one that led to the messy resignation of LA Times Editorial Page Editor Andres Martinez on Thursday. And as seems to be standard practice at the Chicago Tribune, a blind eye was turned to the conflict of interest. This from former Tribune reporter John Cook, now with Radar Online:

Martinez wouldn't be the first newspaper editor to bed a professional spinner and pop open an ethical can of worms. Just ask Jim O'Shea, the Los Angeles Times's top editor. During the five years that O'Shea served as managing editor of the Chicago Tribune, O'Shea was married to a manager of media relations for Chicago's Field Museum.

The museum turned up in the Tribune's pages more than 1,200 times during O'Shea's tenure, sometimes raising eyebrows in the newsroom. (Full disclosure: Your humble correspondent was a Tribune reporter during O'Shea's tenure there.) In April 2004, for instance, the paper ran two back-to-back Page One stories lauding the museum's efforts to establish a nature preserve in rural Peru. The feel-good nature of the stories, their lack of news hook, their unusual length for a newspaper (more than 8,000 words total), and their prominent placement all had staffers wondering if they were an anniversary present to O'Shea's wife. As one Tribune staffer puts it today, "Why put this meaningless Field Museum story on Page One?" (Adding to the intrigue over the Peru series was the fact that Jack Fuller, then the president of Tribune Publishing, was dating a Field Museum scientist featured prominently—and favorably—in the stories.)

According to Cook, the Tribune did not disclose these conflicts to readers, which doesn't surprise us, because they rarely disclose conflicts.

If Tribune executives offer special treatment for their lovers at the Field Museum, are we really expected to believe they don't do the same for their company baseball team?