Today in "Beat On the Tribune:" Pressure From Zell, "Free Lee"

By Chuck Sudo in Miscellaneous on Oct 14, 2010 6:20PM

The Tribune Co., like that one prudish looking girl in high school who was outed as easy the day after senior prom, is getting picked on mercilessly in the wake of that New York Times expose. Robert Feder, who can smell blood in the water quicker than a shark, goes back to the article to point out a golden nugget amidst all the focus on the frathouse hijinks of Randy Michaels, Lee Abrams and company. Former Tribune editor Ann Marie Lipinski recalled a June 2008 meeting where Zell told her the paper should be harder on former Governor Rod Blagojevich. "Don't be a pussy," Zell told Lipinski, "you can be harder on him." Since "that's what she said" wasn't in vogue back then, Lipinski moved on to other business, only to find out Zell was in talks to sell Wrigley Field to the Illinois State Sports Authority.

Lipinski quit the following month. And the NYT article, like herpes, is the gift that keeps on giving.

There's also some gallows humor going around the Trib offices. The picture above was shared on twitter mocking of the beleaguered chief innovation officer and serial spammer. What's missing from that t-shirt? The words "us from."