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?

Tribune Preaches Ethics in LA

A Los Angeles Times editor resigned today after Times Publisher David Hiller — a former publisher of the Chicago Tribune — cancelled a planned special section because of an apparent conflict of interest. You can read the details about the whole messy LA divorce here. What we find fascinating, in particular, is Hiller's sudden discovery of ethics, and specifically, of ethical concerns about conflict of interest. There is something truly startling about hearing these words come out of the mouth of a Tribune executive:

"The problem with conflicts is, how do you know" what someone's motivation was, Hiller told the gathering of the newspaper's managers. "It might appear that something might not be quite right."

Excuse us for being flabbergasted.

The problem with conflicts is, how do you know what someone's motivation was? Indeed. How do we know the Tribune fairly covers the Cubs, a team it owns, and fairly covers the White Sox, who compete in the same market?

How do we know that Tribune reporters, who are directly invested in the Cubs through the Tribune stock in their benefits packages, fairly cover the Cubs and fairly cover the White Sox, who compete in the same market?

It might appear that something is not quite right when, for example, the Tribune prints 1,400 more stories mentioning the Cubs during the two regular seasons that the White Sox won and defended a World Series.

It might appear that something is not quite right when the Tribune enhances the color in photographs of the Cubs and diminishes the color in photographs of the White Sox.

It might appear that something is not quite right when the Tribune declares, the day after 1.75 million people celebrate the White Sox on the streets of Chicago, that the Cubs are still "biggest."

It might appear that something is not quite right when the Tribune declares, as the White Sox pass the Cubs in popularity polls, that the Cubs are still "the most lovable" team in Chicago.

But this isn't just about baseball. How do we know what someone's motivation was when the Tribune and WGN collaborate on stories promoting Tribune-owned Careerbuilder's new advertising campaign and declare, in those stories, that Careerbuilder is "the largest" job-search site?

How do we know what someone's motivation was when the Tribune gives front-page coverage to sexual assaults in Wrigleyville, home of its chosen people, and ignores them on the South Side?

How do we know what someone's motivation was? We don't know.

By the example Hiller has just established in Los Angeles, the Chicago Tribune ought to be cancelled, and its staff ought to resign. And that should have happened a long time ago, when Hiller was still publisher here. But it didn't happen. Nor was the Tribune cleaned up, so that the people of Chicago can have confidence in its journalism. Not only does the Tribune routinely indulge in conflict of interest here, it openly exploits its conflicts of interest, and it doesn't even try to meet the minimum ethical standard by declaring its conflicts in print.

I think this is called hypocrisy.

Tribune Continues to Charm Los Angeles

Tribune is sitting on a powderkeg of anger in Los Angeles and, it turns out, playing with matches. The Tribune-owned Los Angeles Times is receiving another dose of angry letters and subscription cancellations after a Tribune executive implied that Times readers don't care about national and internationl news during an interview broadcast Tuesday on Frontline. A representative of the capital firm that is Tribune's fifth largest investor, Charles Bobrinskoy, said the LA Times doesn't need foreign bureaus to cater to its audience:

They've decided that they have to be a national newspaper with international coverage. They've got over 20 foreign bureaus, including bureaus in Istanbul and Cairo. Nobody is reading the L.A. Times wanting to find out what's happening in Istanbul, so it's critical that the L.A. Times figure out what it is, which is a provider of local news about what's going on in Southern California.

Below you'll find a sampling of letters to the editor printed in today's Times. These are just the few letters the Times saw fit to print. There are more comments in forums on the Frontline site.

Tuesday night on PBS' "Frontline," the Tribune Co. is reported as directing the focus of the Los Angeles Times toward local news. The company apparently feels that The Times should no longer aim to be a leader in national and international news. What it fails to realize is that Los Angeles is not just another city. We are a world-leading city and are not willing to put up with the backwater status that Chicago has always felt we deserve.

Yes, we want good local coverage. But we are better than relying on other news sources for information about our world and nation. The direction of the Tribune Co. is insulting and further evidence it should sell the paper to someone who cares about it.

PHIL HOSKINS
West Hollywood

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On "Frontline," a man from a management company that owns a great deal of Tribune stock said people in Los Angeles aren't concerned about world events; that L.A. is concerned about style and fashion and culture and sports and where to find a really good sushi bar, and that that's where the L.A. Times should focus its energies.

The world's a really scary place. Please keep feeding us, the vapid masses from L.A., more mindless crap. Put Paris Hilton on the front page and stay away from places like Walter Reed hospital, the Middle East and Africa because, according to the gentleman from the management company, some other news organizations are already covering the world.

MICHAEL SACHS
Los Angeles

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I have just watched "Frontline" on KCET on the problems of journalism in our country, with an in-depth section on the L.A. Times. I was filled with deep anger and resentment at what has happened to our newspaper. I feel personally offended at the Wall Street gentleman telling me that I want to read only local news or news of the entertainment industry. I am shocked and can think of nothing but canceling my subscription to The Times.

LUBA FISCHER
Los Angeles

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The people of a great city want and deserve a great newspaper that will deliver the world to their doorstep, while delivering their own distinctive voice to the world. We can get local news from plenty of other sources.

Why should I have to buy the New York Times in addition to the Los Angeles Times in order to feel like I am getting the big picture?

The problem with that man from the management company is that he sees Los Angeles as a small town that only cares about style and entertainment. He seems to think that the citizens of Los Angeles don't have any interest in the world beyond our own borders. He doesn't understand what it means to our city to have a newspaper of national importance. The Tribune Co.'s pursuit of short-term profits has nearly ruined our newspaper.

MICHAEL GASTALDO
Santa Monica

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It is a shame that you are turning this world-class paper into a shell of itself. How much profit is enough? Stop the downsizing and maybe I'll renew my subscription.

WILLIAM TURCHYN II
Los Angeles

Tribune Misleads Readers About Careerbuilder

A few days ago we expressed skepticism of some unattributed statistics cited in a Chicago Tribune story about Tribune-owned Careerbuilder.com. We were right to be skeptical. The Jan. 19 story gives readers the impression that Careerbuilder has passed Monster.com as the leading job-search site, but that claim is simply false.

According to Alexa.com, which ranks websites based on internet traffic, Monster.com was the 298th most popular website over the past three months, while Careerbuilder was 373rd. Over the past week, Monster was ranked 286th, compared to Careerbuilder's 321st. And lest you think the Tribune property is catching up, it isn't: both sites saw their traffic drop about 20 percent over the past three months, probably because of the holidays.

So what was the Tribune story talking about? Mary Ellen Podmolik's story states that "CareerBuilder climb(ed) over Monster.com to become the largest online job site." Largeness, huh? Is that like bigness? What is largeness when it comes to websites? The number of pages? The amount of revenue? The number of visitors? Podmolik doesn't say. "Largest" is simply the word Careerbuilder uses in its advertising tagline, and the Tribune seems to have reprinted it as the lede of a news story. But it seems to us that the leading website is the one that attracts the most traffic.

Podmolik never mentions Monster's substantial advantage in traffic, even when citing Careerbuilder's traffic claims.

Later Podmolik cites another Careerbuilder claim that "it had passed archrival Monster in revenues," but Podmolik neither cites Monster's revenue nor gives Monster an opportunity to respond.

What we may be seeing, in fact, is a new push by Careerbuilder to try to pass Monster, using the Chicago Tribune, Mary Ellen Podmolik, and you, Chicago, as a big springboard of free advertising. Don't buy it.

The Blind Leading the Less Blind

James O'Shea, the Chicago Tribune scab sent to Los Angeles to serve as editor of the Times, announced his exciting new strategy for combating the Times' Tribunesque descent into mediocrity. What could it be? You're looking at it. The internet. According to a story in the Times:

Los Angeles Times Editor James E. O'Shea unveiled a major initiative Wednesday to combine operations of the newspaper and its Internet site — a change he said was crucial to ensuring that The Times remains a premier news outlet. O'Shea employed dire statistics on declining print advertising revenue to urge The Times' 940 journalists to throw off a "bunker mentality" and view latimes.com as the paper's primary vehicle for delivering news.

Everyone outside of Tribune seems to think the Times just needs to be liberated from Tribune, but inside the bunker James O'Shea thinks he can revitalize the Times by bringing it into the mid-1990s. Just one problem: the LA Times is way ahead of the paper where James O'Shea learned the ropes.

According to Alexa.com, the LA Times website is ranked 807th, which is pretty crappy. The New York Times, by contrast, is 109th. But the flagship of the Cubune Empire, the Chicago Tribune itself, is ranked 1,333rd. And falling. Rapidly.

Alexa also rates chicagotribune.com as "slow." 74 percent of websites are faster.

The LA Times following James O'Shea into the internet age is a bit like, I don't know, the Chicago Cubs putting Larry Rothschild in charge of their pitchers. Tribune has its own special logic doesn't it? The logic of losing.

Tribune Staff Hides in Les Nessman's Office

Chicago Tribune employees apparently have convinced themselves that a Columbia Journalism Review editorial calling for the Tribune to get out of the newspaper business because it isn't "doing much public good" does not apply to them. Cubune Watcher Patrick Sheehan tells us Tribune staffers have told him the CJR editorial only applies to "Tribune" and not to "The Tribune."

Patrick wonders if there's tape on the floor in the Tribune Tower where Tribune ends and The Tribune begins, because we can't help but think of Les Nessman, news anchor for WKRP in Cincinatti. According to Wikipedia: "Before approaching (Nessman's) desk, one has to 'knock' on the nonexistent door, attached to the nonexistent walls of the nonexistent office he feels he deserves; those who don't face his ineffectual wrath."

There are many reasons why the wall between Tribune and The Tribune is a fictitious wall, not the least of which involves the Tribune stock in the benefits package that The Tribune reporters receive in return for their souls. In today's Tribune, columnist Phil Rogers confesses to checking his stock prices while sitting in the press box during games. Just what you want in a sportswriter.

There's also that question of "public good." If Tribune isn't doing much public good, doesn't it necessarily follow that The Tribune isn't either? After all, were Tribune to do some public good it would have to do so through institutions it owns, like The Tribune, that interact with the public.

And then there's this: when Tribune fired LA Times editor Dean Baquet, they replaced him with Chicago Tribune managing editor James O'Shea. Notice: Tribune sends Chicago Tribune editor to Los Angeles as an agent for the suppression of journalism.

That's not all. When Tribune fired LA Times publisher Jeffrey Johnson, they replaced him with former Chicago Tribune publisher David Hiller. Tribune sends Chicago Tribune publisher to Los Angeles as an agent for the suppression of journalism.

Ken Reich, a retired 39-year LA Times reporter who blogs on this catastrophe, doesn't see any wall between O'Shea, Hiller, and Tribune CEO Dennis Fitzsimmons. He refers to the three of them as the "axis of stupidity." If there's obviously no wall in Los Angeles, do you really expect us to believe there's a wall in Chicago? I guess so.

So let's just make this perfectly clear: if you walk from one end of the axis of stupidity to the other, you'd better knock on the invisible door in the invisible wall that's somewhere in between.