Lee Abrams - Email Controversy

Email Controversy

On October 15, 2010, Abrams resigned from Tribune Company following revelations that he wrote an email to staff with a link to a video that some within the company considered offensive.

That same day, New York Times public editor Arthur S Brisbane published an editorial questioning his paper's use of anonymous sourcing as one of the "load bearing" elements of the story, particularly as it was a "sensational episode" in a story about a competitor.

On October 19, 2010, Forbes reporter Jeff Bercovici published an email from Abrams defending himself including some specifics not included in mainstream coverage. Notably, that the video was from parody site The Onion and that it had been previously shown at a Chicago Tribune sales meeting to a positive reaction.

On October 28, 2010 Abrams talked for the first time on video with My Damn Channel about his experience at Tribune. Regarding the memo that led to his resignation he tells interviewer John Loscalzo "That memo was designed to point out how silly some of these reality shows are. It was just hilarious video. I showed it around a lot. People said, 'oh yeah, just a true satire that made a great point.' The thing that surprised me about the outrage is that the Onion is a partner of the Chicago Tribune. That very video was shown at a Chicago Tribune sales meeting and everybody yukked at it and it's also to me - kind of scary - that at a media company in the 21st century in the context of that memo you can't send around a parody clip to make a point. I apologized for it that it offended some people but I view it as a deeper political motive behind all that. It was very convienent to help get people like me out of the company."