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OK, we get it. Sam Zell keeps saying the people who work at Tribune, its TV stations and newspapers take themselves too seriously. This new press release on the Tribune website — about a new head of interactive — could be a late April Fool's joke, which doesn't bode well for the new Tribune's nimbleness. Sadly, since it landed in LAT email boxes and is posted on the Trib site, it looks to be real. That doesn't bode well for Zell digging out of his monumental debt hole, since it proves that not only are Tribune execs not to be taken seriously, they're lacking in creative talent too.
CHICAGO Apr. 7, 2008 -- Another freaking Clear Channel Communications executive on the payroll and this one’s been named President of Tribune Interactive.Tribune Broadcasting’s Randy Michaels’ past finally caught up with him when Marc Chase obviously blackmailed his way into a position he is not remotely qualified to hold. Insiders are irate. Chase is a fraud. A source inside Tribune HR, who wished to remain anonymous, pointed out that Marc Chase’s resume (below) was obviously fabricated. First of all, his name isn’t even Marc Chase--it's Mark Thompson. The whole thing is a sham.
MARC CHASE
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington DC 20500 202-456-1111PROFESSINAL EXPERIENCE
Vocabulary Advisorist for George W. Bush
President of the United States of America
Washington DC, 2004-presenteBay
President of Buying Crap
San Jose, California 2003-2004
Executive Vice President of Finding Crap Anywhere
Mountain View, California 2001-2002Microsoft
Senior Executive Vice President of Technology and Stuff
Seattle, Washington, 2000-2001CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX Television
Vice President of Watching TV A Lot
Los Angeles, California 1999-2000Harvard University
Dean of School of Internetology
Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1998EDUCASHION
Nearly Graduated with Honers
School of Alabama in Atlanta Georgia 1985
COMMUNITY SERVICE400 Hours (reduced from 600)
Judge gave time off for good behaviorChase was quoted as saying, “Timing and infrared photography are everything. I couldn’t be happier! I know Randy is relieved to finally have me on Sam’s payroll.”
Tribune has undergone major changes in the past year, with billionaire Sam Zell acquiring the company last April in a complex deal that left it with $13 billion in debt. Since then, Zell has brought in new executives to fill key roles. This one takes the cake.
Last December, Zell hired Michaels -- who helped Zell to build Clear Channel into a radio behemoth that he could then sell -- to oversee Tribune's broadcast and Internet divisions. It is obvious Michaels has lost his mind with this hire.
--By Hugh Jass – A Reputable Media Source
© 2008, Bogus Information, a division of Dewey, Cheatum, and Howe. All Rights Reserved.
Morning radio-level humor...not quite the lowest rung on the comedy ladder, but close enough you can see it from there. Yeah, that's just what's needed to inspire journalists, already scared that Sam Zell is going to blow their retirement fund, to work harder on more trivial stories for bosses who don't have a clue.