Sam Zell's four-letter response to a journalist raises questions

The Chicago Tribune reports:

Two things common to all the employee meetings to date on Tribune Co. Chairman and Chief Executive Sam Zell's introductory tour of company newspapers have been questions about the news people need vs. news people want and the four-letter epithets with which Zell likes to pepper his speech.

The two collided Thursday at Florida's Orlando Sentinel as photographer Sara Fajardo asked about his "viewpoints on journalism and the role it plays in the community" given all his talk to generate revenue. As the audience applauded his answer, Zell stepped back from the lectern and cursed at her.

Many in attendance reportedly did not hear the vulgarity at the time, but it was captured on a video of the meeting that was posted later on the Sentinel's internal Web site.

Video of the exchange eventually gained wide distribution, first through an Internet gossip site and later via other outlets, including other Tribune Co. papers, triggering a debate over Zell's sincerity in listing "Question Authority" as a core value of the newly private company he assumed control of in December, thanks to an $8.2 billion transaction involving an Employee Stock Ownership Plan.

The company's recently revised handbook instructs employee-owners to ask questions of those above them and should "push back if you do not like the answer. You will not get into trouble for asking tough questions." The handbook also says, "Have fun and treat each other with respect."

Tribune Co. spokesman Gary Weitman said today Zell's four-letter response to Fajardo had nothing to do with the question, but rather the way it was asked and Zell's perception that she wasn't really listening to his answer. He said Zell, who has been traveling, has failed in at least two attempts to contact Fajardo to apologize if she was offended and explain why he felt she was being disrespectful.

"Whether she intended it or not, Sam's perception was that she was being disrespectful in both the tone she was using with him and the fact she was shaking her head as he was answering the question and, ultimately, before he finished the answer, turned her back on him and walked away," Weitman said.

Tribune Co. also owns the Chicago Tribune.

Reached today, Fajardo declined comment.

The video of the exchange does not show Fajardo.

Zell answered her initial question by saying that he wants "to make enough money so that I can afford you. You need to, in effect, help me by being a journalist that focuses on what our readers want that generates more revenue."

"What readers want are puppy dogs," Fajardo said, alluding to soft feature stories. "We also need to inform the community."

"I'm sorry," Zell responded. "But you're giving me the classic, what I would call, journalistic arrogance by deciding that puppies don't count. I don't know anything about puppies. What I'm interested in is how can we generate additional interest in our products and additional revenue so we can make our product better and better and hopefully we get to the point where our revenue is so significant that we can do puppies and Iraq."

He then stepped back from the podium and uttered the epithet.

Sounds like Sam Zell didn't learn the values of the Columbia Journalism School.